Report: Daley's Nephew Wants In On Video Gambling Market
CHICAGO (WBBM/CBS) -- Mayor Richard M. Daley's nephew reportedly wants to cash in on the coming video gambling market in bars and clubs across Illinois.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's David Roe reports, Mark Vanecko, who has been an attorney for Chicago bars and for the annual Lollapalooza music festval, is also a partner in a Lattner Entertainment Group Illinois, a business group that has applied for state licensing to operate slot machines in liquor serving establishments.
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The Chicago Tribune reports that questions are mounting because business group, Lattner Entertainment, failed to disclose Vanecko's relation with Daley on a state form that provides the only information made public about license applicants.
The form requires all applicants to list "relatives" of "public officials or others' who have involvement in the company, as well as any campaign contributions by the applicants in the prior five years, the Tribune reported.
The company says it believes it was right not to list Vanecko's relation to Daley. Lattener Entertainment attorney Paul Jenson told the Tribune the company had interpreted the requirement "as it relates to another question," but did not clarify what that meant.
Vanecko is one of the oldest grandchildren of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. He is also the nephew of Cook County Board Finance Committee Chairman John Daley, who supported a ban on video gambling in unincorporated Cook County, and newly-appointed White House chief of staff Bill Daley, the Tribune pointed out.
Mark Vanecko's brother, Robert Vanecko, has been in the news for his 4 percent ownership along with the mayor's son, Patrick Daley, of a company that received city contracts.
One of their former business partners, Patrick Duffy, was charged in a federal indictment recently with using a minority-owned company as a front to get contracts for his sewer cleaning and inspection company. Neither Robert Vanecko nor Patrick Daley are accused of any wrongdoing in that case.
