Chicago Attorney Peter Silvestri serves on the Cook County, Illinois, commission and formerly was the president of the west suburb Elmwood Park council. Since 2013, when he left that position, he also has been a sales agent for gambling machine operator Gold Rush Amusements, owned by Silvestri’s childhood friend Rick Heidner.
Silvestri said he has arranged 10-15 video gambling machine placements for Gold Rush—including two locations in Elmwood Park. Typically sales agents are paid $10,000 or more for placements.
Later, Angelo “Skip” Saviano, Silvestri’s successor as Elmwood Park council president, stopped Gold Rush competitor Blackhawk Restaurant Group from opening a second gambling parlor. Saviano said he didn’t want to appear to be “in bed” with Blackhawk by allowing it to open a second location. Like most mayors and village presidents who also serve as his suburb’s liquor commissioner, Saviano said he refused to give Blackhawk the liquor license required by state law s to open a video gambling parlor.
However, later, a Stella’s Place gambling establishment opened in the same location, stocked with Gold Rush machines. Silvestri said he was the Gold Rush sales agent on the deal. He and Heidner said favoritism was not involved. “This is not the way we play,” Heidner said.
State campaign finance records show Heidner and his companies gave more than $16,000 in campaign contributions since 2001 to Silvestri and Saviano.
Blackhawk has had better luck in the southwest suburb Bridgeview where Mayor Steven Landek has granted the company two liquor licenses since August 2014. Landek and Michael Thiessen, who holds a minority ownership stake in Blackhawk’s parent company, are among the owners of Southwest Community News Group, a small chain of suburban newspapers.
Blackhawk, which operates 67 female-oriented gambling parlors statewide earning $33 after taxes, opened its first Bridgeview location on 87th Street in August 2014; a second opened in August 2016. In 2013 a competitor, Dotty’s Café, inquired about a liquor license for the 87th Street site. James Lang, the company’s director of government relations, said he received, “no return emails, no phone calls.” Bridgeview village spokesman Ray Hanania, a columnist for Southwest Community News Group, said Dotty’s “dropped the ball” by never submitting a liquor license application, which Lang denied.
Thiessen said he did not seek favors from Landek. “If I would have known we wanted that store, we would get there first, not second,” he said.
