Racino Planner Rick Heidner Speaks To Tinley Trustees

TINLEY PARK, IL — Rick Heidner, the owner of Gold Rush Gaming who was leading the push to have a racino — racetrack and casino — built in Tinley Park on the site of the old Mental Health Center property at 183rd and Harlem, spoke before village trustees Tuesday night defending himself against a recent Chicago Tribune article that detailed ties to a family who had ties to the mob. The gambling operator and real estate developer also said he remains "committed to this very important project for Tinley Park" and hopes that the racino project could still work out here.

Heidner said the Tribune article cast him in a "false light" and was a story "filled with false innuendos" regarding his business relationships. The Tribune details Heidner's relationships with a banking family whose financial involvement with mob figures led to the downfall of a potential Rosemont casino in 2001, the newspaper described.

But Heidner, who is also the founder of the Ricky Rockets Fuel Center chain of which there is one nearby Midlothian, spoke of his own character to the trustees.

"I am a good man and a good husband and a good father," he said. "A good citizen and a good friend and also proud that I am active in my community.

"We donate hundreds of thousands to charities every year," he continued. "To children who are sick and to families of fallen police officers and soldiers."

He said he's never given or paid a bribe or any improper benefit. He has donated to both Republican and Democratic political officials and candidates but "every one of them was properly disclosed," he said.

His attorney, Patrick Collins, told the trustees Heidner instructed him to cooperate with the United State's Attorney's Office when search warrants were issued and that the U.S. Attorney's Office confirmed with him that Heidner is not a target of any current investigation.

Heidner also had the support of all three Tinley Park residents who spoke during the board meeting's public comment period.

"Rick was willing to invest millions for a state-of-the-art concept and his dream was derailed by driving forces," one man said. "I hope Rick will be vindicated and his dream of the racino will become a reality. If not here in Tinley Park, then somewhere else."

A woman called the recent publicity on Heidner "a political assassination."

"We had the perfect solution for the Mental Health Center property," she said. "The village would buy the property, sell it to Rick and the state of Illinois would earn tens of millions of dollars every year."

Even though time has appeared to run out on the racino project as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has halted a deal that would have the state sell the Mental Health Center property to the village, who would then sell it to Heidner, Heidner still touted the potential benefits of a racino in that exact spot.

"We've been working on this project for three years and want to bring this economic development to Tinley Park and the surrounding area," he said. "Construction alone will provide 1,000 jobs and thousands more permanent jobs would come once it's created. It would also clean up a contaminated, blighted site and turn it into something beautiful and a place the community can be proud of."