Everybody’s favorite rogue gaming operator, Rick Heidner, is suing the Illinois Gaming Board for an alleged data breach. Heidner charges that “their personal and sensitive financial information was intentionally 
and illegally leaked by an IGB employee … resulting in significant financial and reputational harm.” We don’t know how much ‘repetitional’ harm can be done when you’re so mobbed-up that the governor of Illinois, no less, barred you from owning a racino, but there you have it. Heidner seeks $2 million in damages and another $2 million for his Gold Rush Gaming, for “causing substantial harm when an IGB employee intentionally and without authorization disclosed sensitive financial information, including personally identifiable information relating to Gold Rush, Mr. Heidner, his wife, two of his children, and other individuals.”
Heidner, “a licensed terminal operator serving more than 500 establishments across Illinois,” further accuses the IGB of tardiness in alerting him to the leak, saying he “received the IGB’s data breach notices on Jan. 31, well after the IGB discovered the breach on Jan. 3, and a week after the media had reported the breach.” This would constitute a violation of the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act. “Despite requiring licensees and associated individuals to hand over a veritable treasure trove of their most sensitive data, the evidence will show that the IGB’s approach to protecting Mr. Heidner’s data has been careless and cavalier, at best,” the complaint states.
Heidner is hitting back, by proxy, at the Chicago Tribune, for a lengthy exposé of his ties to organized crime, an embarrassment to Illinois 
regulators that provoked Gov. J.B. Pritzker‘s unprecedented action. “Such insinuations were false, in that Mr. Heidner had made complete and accurate disclosures in both Gold Rush’s initial terminal operator license application and in all renewal and related submissions to the IGB,” the suit states. Heidner’s suit contends that this was the work of an unnamed IGB whistleblower. An “IGB employee made these unauthorized disclosures to fuel―or at least in response to―negative media coverage the IGB helped generate against Mr. Heidner and Gold Rush.”
The suit enumerates the sensitive information as including Heidner’s “social security [sic] number, assets, liabilities, personal bank accounts, personal and business investments, real estate holdings, life insurance policies, vehicle ownership, mortgages, and liens.” Heidner, in addition to demanding a probe by state Attorney General Kwame Raoul, dismissed the Tribune articles as an “orchestrated and public smear campaign.” It’s a good thing for Heidner that’s not suing the World’s Greatest Newspaper as one should never pick fights with those who buy ink by the barrel.
* The Culinary Union‘s Bethany Khan tells us the local is undecided on whether or not to endorse a presidential candidate—except that it’s not going to be Donald Trump. Still, with the Nevada caucuses looming large on the horizon, so does the Culinary’s favor. As the Boston Globe reports, “The union that dominates the caucuses in Nevada already expressed displeasure with Medicare for All,” which Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren champion, “but it is unclear how their members might vote.” If you’ve got a good, casino-based medical plan (and the Culinary’s is considered one of the best) the charms of Medicare for All might seem elusive.
Jottings: Tuesday is the date certain for Scientific Games‘ earnings call. Whether out of an excess of cuteness or an effort to confuse investors, rival SciPlay has scheduled its earnings call for the same day … 
Correction: The Lucky Dragon has reopened as an Ahern Hotel not “Aehrn [sic]” as previously stated. Owner Don Ahern got a $165 million resort for $36 million. A novice hotelier, he may be taking a naive approach, telling reporters, “The hotel business is really nothing more than the rental business” … Virgin Trains says it has a new Downtown location for its California-to-Vegas service, due in 2023. More details as we have them.
