Facing the loss of a lucrative video gaming license over long-ago accusations of illicit gambling payouts, connections to reputed mob figures and dishonesty with state regulators, the operator of a Cicero diner sued the Illinois Gaming Board this week to undo its revocation order.
Filed Monday, the suit by Jeffrey Bertucci’s Firebird Enterprises Inc., includes a request to a Cook County judge to let the video gaming terminals inside Bertucci’s Steak N Egger franchise in the near western suburb operate while the case is litigated, letting the cash continue to roll in, at least temporarily.
The gaming board — which reports to Gov. JB Pritzker and regulates casinos, sports gambling and video poker and slots in Illinois — decided Thursday to revoke Firebird’s license, ignoring Administrative Law Judge Michael Coveny’s recommendation that a board effort to strip it away be dismissed.
