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* Neil Bluhm was on defense last week…
“You know, I’m embarrassed if somebody says I’m a billionaire,” he said in an interview with another Chicago billionaire, Sam Zell. “It’s like I’m a criminal.” […]
“I’m a Democrat, but I worry that there’s part of our country that views that as being wrong because of the inequality over wealth,” Bluhm said. “Inequality in part has occurred because of the action of the (Federal Reserve) and interest rates being so low, so asset values have gone up, and our net worth has gone up. But it isn’t our fault. We took chances, we got educated, we went into business and there was the hope—and that was what America was all about.”
Bluhm knows something about the American Dream. He came from a modest upbringing, raised by a single mother, who worked as a bookkeeper, in an apartment over a drugstore in Albany Park. He went on to obtain a law degree from Northwestern University and made a fortune in real estate. He’s the founder of JMB Realty, Walton Street Capital, two Chicago real estate investment firms, and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming, a casino owner whose assets include the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines.
Bluhm is worth $6.4 billion, up from $4 billion in 2020, according to Forbes magazine. He’s slightly ahead of Zell, whose fortune rose to $6 billion this year, up from $4.7 billion.
* This week, he went on offense…
Casino magnate Neil Bluhm has lined up a team of blue-ribbon lobbyists to try to convince the City Council not to lift the ban on sports betting in Chicago.
On Monday, Bluhm made the argument himself during a subject matter hearing on sports betting before a joint meeting of the zoning and license committees. It’s the political equivalent of a heavyweight boxing match that has pitted sports team owners against clout-heavy developers vying to build a Chicago casino. […]
Bluhm’s interest in blocking the ordinance is two-fold. His Rush Street Gaming company is part of two separate groups vying to build a Chicago casino.
And his Des Plaines-based Rivers Casino already has a sports book that stands to lose business if sports betting is legalized in Chicago.
* But there was some push-back…
Mara Georges, who worked as the city’s top attorney under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, said Bluhm’s projections on tax revenue losses “are not to be taken seriously.” Georges is lobbying for the ordinance on behalf of the Wirtz family, who own the Blackhawks and the United Center, and the Ricketts family, who own the Cubs and Wrigley Field.
Bluhm’s projections “rest in conjecture and fail to accurately state the facts,” Georges said, adding his comments “seem to assume that no person who places a wager at a sports book venue will venture to a casino after the game.”
Plus, Bluhm’s Rivers Casino in suburban Des Plaines is already benefiting from the ban on sports betting in Chicago, Georges said.
“If the tax rate in Illinois gets too high on sports book or sports book is not allowed in the city of Chicago, all that will happen is those bettors will leave the city and flee to locations outside the city,” she said.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:16 am
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OK so the guy who mucked up horse racing now has some scheme to block the sports book? Oh and worry about the take at Rivers in Des Plaines. That dank, cramped dump should be leveled.
Comment by Annonin' Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:20 am
Great. On one side, you have Bluhm. On the other side, Wirtz/Ricketts. So billionaires are going to win regardless. Same as it ever was.
“Have the Rolling Stones killed.”
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:23 am
== OK so the guy who mucked up horse racing now has some scheme to block the sports book? ==
He already mucked up sports betting. People in Illinois can’t go online and download a sports betting ap. Try it. It’s blocked. You have to physically go to his casino to sign up for a sports betting ap.
Comment by DaBlues Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:26 am
BOO HOO
Comment by R U F’ing Kidding Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:31 am
People don’t dislike you because you’re a billionaire, Neil, they dislike you because you’re an $&@&hole.
Comment by Captain Obvious Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:34 am
“It’s like I’m a criminal.”
Ok you have a product which separates people (some with gambling addictions) from their hard earned cash. Who cares if they can’t buy groceries for the kids as long as the house usually wins, right? That’s something, not criminal but something.
And now you want an even larger piece of the pie.
Comment by Tiny violin Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:40 am
Just to put it into perspective, if you were given $5,000.00 a day, every day for 500 years you still wouldn’t have a Billion dollars.
Comment by Gruntled University Employee Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:49 am
I think our Billionaire governor should show the Billionaire Bluhm the door on any issues going forward. What he did along with Churchill Downs to Arlington is a travesty. Add in the sportsbook issue and he should be put on the naughty list for any state action.
Comment by Nagidam Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 10:52 am
Man, after last night’s Bears game, I don’t know how anyone could say that sports betting is a good thing.
Comment by ChrisB Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:02 am
===“You know, I’m embarrassed if somebody says I’m a billionaire,” he said in an interview with another Chicago billionaire, Sam Zell. “It’s like I’m a criminal.”===
This is a problem I want to have.
Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:08 am
Bluhm may be a passive bystander on Federal Reserve policy, but the assets he’s talking about came into his possession through state gaming law. “It’s not my fault” doesn’t really cut it on that one.
It’s legal to be a billionaire, and it’s legal to lobby the legislature. But when you’re a billionaire who’s lobbying to pull up the ladder behind you, you’re no longer an average citizen randomly bestowed with wealth by neutral government policy. “It’s not my fault” doesn’t really cut it.
Comment by vern Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:11 am
Class warfare. Big reason Dems going to lose nationally in a year. And fair tax loses by double digits in blue Illinois. The billionaires have a point.
Comment by Numbers matter Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:19 am
Every dollar that people lose at Wrigley Field betting on sports is a dollar they cannot spend after the game in Wrigleyville bars.
Comment by Thomas Paine Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:19 am
===The billionaires have a point.===
LOL, if you’re siding with billionaires that’s some funny self own…
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:24 am
Neil is on to something. We should criminalize being a billionaire.
Comment by Shield Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:26 am
Bluhm and Pritzker are poster children for the fact the having wealth is not synonymous with having Class.
Comment by Al Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:27 am
==The billionaires have a point.==
Yeah. Lot of sympathy out there for billionaires. Let me get out my world’s smallest violin and play it for them.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:29 am
Bluhm and Trump are poster children for the fact the having wealth is not synonymous with having Class.
Fixed it for you.
Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:38 am
“It’s like I’m a criminal.”
Why? There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a billionaire. Some people want him to pay more in taxes and do good things for the environment. Why does that make him feel like a criminal?
Comment by Ducky LaMoore Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:38 am
=== The billionaires have a point. ===
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that the poorest part of the State of Illinois voted against a tax increase that would apply to fewer than 3% of the residents living in their home counties. I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that very few of the people who participate in this discussion here are actually in an income situation where they would have been impacted by the progressive tax rates passed by the legislature.
Characterizing this as “class warfare” is silly. In this instance at least 1 billionaire, Ken Griffin, threw money at convincing a bunch of gullible rubes that a constitutional change that would have required him to pay taxes at a higher rate was going to magically apply to people whose incomes are usually below the median income for the state as a whole.
On the other side, there was a billionaire who put up $50 million of his own money to encourage people to vote for an amendment that would have had him paying more taxes. His $50 million wasn’t well spent, but at the end of the day it wasn’t spent peddling outright lies which is cheaper and easier to do for a group of folks that just want a reason to be against something and a reason to pretend they’re under attack.
It was literally billionaire vs. billionaire. That’s not class warfare. That’s our status quo for politics in this county for the last 50 years.
This billionaire that supports democratic candidates is complaining because people have actually started to discuss the fact that no one becomes a billionaire without culpability along the way. Billionaires have victims. No one becomes a billionaire without victims.
Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 11:49 am
“I’ve spent my entire lifetime pursuing wealth, but occasionally I still feel bad about myself… It must be other people’s fault.”
– MrJM
Comment by MisterJayEm Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:00 pm
I can think of a way he can shed that awful shame and embarrassment.
Comment by Sonny Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:05 pm
“Not *all* billionaires” - by Neil Bluhm, forward by JB Pritzker
Comment by JB13 Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:11 pm
-“You know, I’m embarrassed if somebody says I’m a billionaire”-
You could, you know, decide you have enough and stop pursuing more any time.
Comment by Ron Burgundy Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:13 pm
“Why? There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a billionaire.”
That’s just one opinion…I could not disagree more.
Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:27 pm
“Characterizing this as “class warfare” is silly. In this instance at least 1 billionaire, Ken Griffin, threw money at convincing a bunch of gullible rubes that a constitutional change that would have required him to pay taxes at a higher rate was going to magically apply to people whose incomes are usually below the median income for the state as a whole.”
Counterpoint: Lots of voters clearly had zero faith the State of Illinois was going to keep the higher rates at just the top 3% for long if graduated income tax was passed.
Comment by ChicagoBars Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:31 pm
Didn’t these guys have the answer a long time ago?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jC3H_8Dk4
Comment by Lurker Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 12:51 pm
Both teacher pension systems list Walton Street Capital as asset managers. Be sure to thank Neil when you see him.
Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 1:07 pm
“Gullible rubes””. Never heard North Shore voters described that way.
Comment by Watchful eye. Tuesday, Nov 9, 21 @ 2:11 pm
=== Never heard North Shore voters described that way.===
You know what they say, if the shoe fits…..
Comment by Tiny violin Wednesday, Nov 10, 21 @ 6:51 am