The company decided to launch an initial public offering that offered people of color an advantage over other investors, which ruffled feathers and saw a lawsuit filed against Bally’s
Bally’s and the city of Chicago have finally settled a lawsuit filed by two white men who alleged that the company had unfairly barred certain groups of people from participating in the company’s proposed initial public offering (IPO).
White Men Are Discriminated Against, Plaintiffs Say
The litigation brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on behalf of American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) and Texan residents Phillip Aronoff and Richard Fisher has reached a conclusion behind closed doors, with no details about the nature of the settlements disclosed to the public, as per Bloomberg reporting.
A settlement was finally confirmed on Friday and hammered out at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Attorney costs and fees are going to be paid by each party involved and cover their respective due amounts.
The legal casus belli was a clause in the IPO prospectus that only wanted to allowed minority and women investors only to be investors, which critics said discriminated against people who were of a different race or sex.
Bally’s sought to sell a 25% stake of its property in Chicago to the public but wanted to specifically empower groups that were normally underrepresented, which immediately chafed conservatives who saw it as another diversity, equity, and inclusion gimmick.
Empowered by Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s “anti-woke” wave, the plaintiffs doubled down against the property.
Diversity Targets Have Been Promised by Bally’s
Bally’s has since updated its prospectus and has reversed the clause that made it possible only for the aforementioned groups to be investors. Moving forward, this will no longer be the case. Bally’s, though, wants to meet a promise it made to the city of Chicago by bringing its minority ownership to 25% specifically.
It is not clear if Bally’s will be pushing forward with the IPO as of right now, and how the company intends to accomplish its diversity obligations to the city.
