Sports betting became legal in Illinois on June 28, 2019. This is only possible because the federal law known as PASPA was repealed by the Supreme Court of the United States. After the PASPA repeal, state lawmakers gained the ability to create sports betting laws. Illinois legalized sports betting in 2019, and sports betting apps launched starting in 2020. Now, Illinois sports bettors have access to five apps, and more are on the way. DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet, William Hill, and BetRivers are all live and taking bets in the Prairie State. Top Online Illinois Sportsbook Apps. In February 2018, the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) established a voluntary, confidential Problem Gambling Registry for Video Gaming. Persons enrolled in the registry will receive regular emails providing information on problem gambling and containing links to problem gambling prevention and treatment resources available in Illinois.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) is conducting a yearlong study on gambling and gambling addiction within the state. The announcement of this study comes just months after sports betting became legal in Illinois. Right now, anyone 21 and older within the state of Illinois. Gambling in Illinois Casino gambling in Illinois began in 1990, when riverboats were allowed to offer casino gambling when on the water. Almost a decade later, a new law allowed for those boats to be docked and still offer gambling.

Like a lighthouse glimmering on the horizon of a pitch-black ocean, you can see the casino lights of Las Vegas luring you to gamble as you fly into McCarran International Airport. Similarly, the newly rejuvenized Atlantic City, fueled with the lifeblood of sports betting, has all its gaming options in a centralized location.

But what if you looked at gambling in an entire state? Would Nevada and New Jersey still be the gold standards?

One could argue Mississippi, with its 26 casinos, can be part of the conversation. But when you dive into how much gambling is concentrated in one state, the answer is relatively simple.

Known more for its political corruption, Michael Jordan, and deep-dish pizza (one of the finest tourist traps in America), Illinois is not a state the general audience associates with gambling. The state does indeed have an abundance of gambling options, but the lack of a centralized hub will never give it the appeal of Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

But when you analyze betting in Illinois as a whole, that is an entirely different equation.

In a world where the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) has been repealed, online poker is gaining traction, and putting lottery games online are all slowly becoming the norm, Illinois has gradually positioned itself to become the next gambling mecca.

A well-oiled gambling machine exists in the Midwest

History has not been kind to the Land of Lincoln when it comes to gambling. The state has tried and failed to pass a gambling expansion bill for years. But a few months ago, with the help of newly elected governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, lawmakers were able to pass S 690, a bill filled with every form of legal gaming imaginable.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at The University of Illinois Springfield said, the big-ticket item for the state will be the licenses to operate sports betting.

“The governor is counting on the $10 million that each license will cost,” Redfield said in an interview with Play USA.

Pritzker is counting on $200 million in licensing fees from legalized sports betting to close a $3.2 billion budget gap, a gap that continues to grow larger and larger by the day.

“In the past, this bill would have been too big,” Redfield said. “But looking at the need for pensions, social services, and capital spending, this becomes part of the puzzle.”

But the puzzle in IL is more prominent than just sports betting.

The state of gaming in Illinois

For a frame of reference, here is the current level of gambling in the state:

• Video gaming terminals (VGT) 32,561
• VGT establishments 7,079 (5 terminals each)
• 10 casinos
• 1,200 gaming positions per casino
• 3 racetracks
• State lottery
• Online lottery games
• Daily fantasy sports
• *Note there is no gambling in Chicago

When Did Sports Betting Become Legal In Illinois

Here is the amount of gaming that will be integrated into IL, once the gambling expansion bill is fully realized.

• VGT establishments +1 extra machine
• 5 new casinos
• 2,000 gaming positions per casino
• 1 Chicago mega-casino
• 4,000 gaming positions for Chicago casino
• 11,200 total new gaming positions
• 1 new racetrack
• Sports betting
  • 16 retail sportsbooks
  • 3 online sportsbooks
• 2,500 sports betting lottery kiosks (year one)
• 2,500 sports betting lottery kiosks (year two)
• The ability for horse tracks to have up to 1,200 casino games (slots and table games)

Once every casino is built, every VGT machine is turned on, and every sportsbook is live, the amount of available gambling in Illinois will dwarf that of any state in the US.

Illinois is full of potential, but never Las Vegas

Las Vegas is known for having every vice imaginable. But that isn’t the only reason gambling companies continue to call it home.

“Illinois has a large concentration of gaming if you take into account limited gaming locations. But Illinois may not ever see the level of investment that we see in Las Vegas because of its substantial gaming tax rate,” said Jennifer Roberts, associate director of the UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation.

Roberts, an adjunct professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law, said Nevada is very business-friendly with its tax structure, and because of this, an expansion of gambling in IL poses no threat.

“Where we may see an impact is if gaming companies traditionally headquartered in Nevada decide to move their corporate offices outside the state,” Roberts said.

With how poorly managed the tax structure in IL currently is, Nevada will not be losing any business to the Midwest, and the casino industry knows that.

In May, Moody’s Investments Servicesreleased a report that said IL had the lowest investment rating in the country.

In a statement, Moody’s vice president, Emily Raimes, had this to say:

“While most states have healthy reserves and inherently strong fiscal flexibility, Illinois and New Jersey both have low levels of reserves relative to the potential revenue decline in our recession scenario. In addition, they both show weakness in their pension risk scores.”

Illinois has a staggering $133.5 billion in unfunded state pension liabilities. The hope is that gambling mixed with Pritzker’s $41.5 billion capital plan over the next six years will help bring some relief to the state.

Illinois gambling opposition and tax rates

As thorough as the expansion plans are, there is always opposition. The Illinois Casino Gaming Association (ILCGA) opposed the bill from the start. Tom Swoik, executive director of ILCGA, told ProPublica-Illinois, the gambling bill would not benefit the casino industry.

“This state has not been business-friendly to casinos from the beginning, and this bill doesn’t help that,” Swoik said.

When Did Gambling Become Legal In Illinois State

Unlike other states, IL has draped the gaming industry in taxes ever since riverboat gambling appeared in the 1990s.

Currently, casinos are taxed 15 percent AGR up to or including $25 million, according to the Illinois Gaming Control Board (ILGCB). Video gaming is taxed at 30 percent with a four percent increase slated for 2020.

Once it arrives, sports betting will be taxed at 15 percent but the real kicker is the massive 72 percent tax rate for a Chicago casino.

Despite the lopsided tax structure, Cory Aronovitz, a gaming attorney with Casino Law Group, told Play USA, Illinois had positioned itself to lead in two very critical categories.

“The way Illinois approached the gambling bill will put it in a position to maximize revenues, as well as, lead in the integrity aspect of regulation,” Aronovitz said.

According to figures from the ILGCB, the state collected $39,618,042 in gambling taxes in August, while municipalities divided up $7,074,648–all from VGTs.

When Did Gambling Become Legal In Illinois

In August, the state’s 10 casinos generated $117,895,319 in gross gaming revenue. Of that, $38,057,318 went to the state and $6,841,296 to local municipalities.

The numbers appear promising even without sports betting, but are they enough to pull the state out of the financial abyss it calls home and bring new business to the Midwest?

Can Illinois expect gambling help in the immediate future?

Steve Brubaker, a longtime gambling lobbyist in IL, said the top two earners in the state are VGT companies followed by Rivers Casino.

In August, Rivers generated $37,598,367 in gross gaming revenue, with the next closest being the Grand Victoria in Elgin, IL, which collected $14,484,111.

But according to Brubaker, don’t expect the floodgates to burst wide open with gambling and tax dollars.

“Those who think we are going to have all this gaming in the first year or two haven’t been paying attention to the history of Illinois,” Brubaker said.

However, Aronovitz speculates the state gaming board might move rather quickly with some aspects of the gaming bill. In terms of VGT’s, Aronovits fully expects a rollout of new gaming machines to occur later this fall.

“I predict there will be sports betting by the start of the 2020 football season,” Aronovits said. “Issuance of new casino licenses by late October 2020 with the anticipation of a Chicago casino by Q3 or Q4 of 2021.”

But first, a few things must be fixed by the gaming board, and on September 17, the ILGCB took steps to clean things up.

The five-member board passed a resolution that would change the state law making casinos more viable. Although a step in the right direction, newly appointed chairman Charles Schmadeke told the Chicago Tribune, the role of the gaming board is not to tell lawmakers what to do.

“Our role is merely to refer to the legislature for consideration, and it’s up to them to do as they deem appropriate,” Schmadeke said.

Legal Illinois gambling and what could be…

Perhaps it’s foolish to think Illinois could ever become a lighthouse off in the distance–a beacon of gambling delight where sports bettors, daily fantasy sports enthusiast, and casino fiends come to indulge in all the pleasure the state has to offer.

Illinois is poised to see gambling growth for the next several years. Lawmakers are planning to correct some of the mistakes in S 690 when they return for a veto session in October. All legislative sponsors of the gambling bill could not be reached for comment.

“This is a long term commitment by the state,” Aronovitz said. “The realization of tax revenue will need to be revisited after the initial rollout of full gaming under the act.”

But the path to a gambling mecca, even if only in the Midwest, has already been put into motion.

Two of the state’s racetracks have already submitted applications to operate casino games. One way or another, Chicago will get its long sought-after casino. Sports betting will finally arrive with glorious applause, more VGT’s will pop up, and additional casinos will be constructed.

Illinois is hoping gambling can help pull itself out of debt. But in the end, everyone knows the house always wins.

View of Sauganash Hotel, c.1830

Americans were tolerant of gambling when Chicago was founded, and Mark Beaubien's Sauganash featured it. But gambling seemed at odds with a commercial society's emphasis on hard work and self-discipline. Further, as gambling itself commercialized, crooked professional gamblers appeared. Affluent people began to class gambling with idleness and vice. The Protestant clergy denounced gambling in the 1830s, and city officials, in the first of many crackdowns, jailed proprietors of two gambling houses.

Gambling appealed most to the poor and immigrants. Working-class men found an independence in gambling, in sharp contrast to their jobs, and risk taking and competition seemed to validate their masculinity. Bettors wagered on card games, checkers, backgammon, horse races, and prize fights. They played policy, a lottery-like game, and by the 1850s rowdy crowds gathered and gambled at rat and cock fights.

Washington Park Race Track, c.1900

Gambling became a major business. By 1850, entrepreneurs had established hundreds of gambling houses, typically associated with saloons, especially downtown. Some houses were not only honest but elegant. Gambling on horses was common and was integral to racetracks. By 1866, “pool rooms” accommodated racing fans away from the track. Gambling payrolls, rents, and customers' purchases in adjacent businesses were important to the city's economy.

By the 1870s, gamblers combined into syndicates to handle big risks. The biggest gamblers, led by Mike McDonald, were important political contributors, and officials were reluctant to enforce laws against gambling. Police were often personally sympathetic to gambling, and many accepted payoffs. But campaigns against gambling found a few eager allies among politicians, and even the tolerant mayor Carter H. Harrison was pressured into crackdowns on the more open forms of gambling.

Smashing Slot Machines, 1907

By 1900, three loosely organized syndicates controlled most commercial gambling. For the first time, big gamblers used violence in a struggle to control the specialized business of supplying racing news by telegraph, the strategic key to controlling lucrative off-track betting. Mont Tennes emerged as Chicago's most important gambler. While big gambling houses concentrated downtown, bookies and policy writers spread out into neighborhood newsstands, cigar and barber shops, and saloons. Promoters built racetracks beyond the city limits. In the 1890s, illegal casinos moved to the suburbs, a process accelerated by John Torrio in the 1910s.

South Side bowling alley, 1941.

Gambling was often associated with masculinity. Such male spaces as barber shops and saloons were sites for friendly wagers and headquarters for bookies and policy writers. Young working-class men threw dice on street corners, baseball players challenged competitors, and side bets were an important feature of bowling tournaments. South Side housewives were important participants in policy, however, many patronizing policy writers who took their business door to door.

Opponents of gambling redoubled their efforts in the 1890s. School officials struggled to exclude gambling from extracurricular activities. Federal legislation restricted use of the mails and interstate commerce for gambling. Illinois lawmakers banned racetrack bookmaking and policy.

But gambling bounced back and expanded. Pari-mutuel betting on races was legalized in 1927. Policy, popular among African Americans, grew as they were forced into segregated neighborhoods in the early twentieth century. Black gamblers contributed to Bronzeville churches and charities and invested in its businesses. Bingo became popular, and during the Great Depression churches and charities sponsored it to raise funds, drawing many women as players. Meanwhile telephones facilitated the gradual decline of the male-dominated horse parlor.

The Torrio-Capone organization expanded its limited gambling operations, especially after Prohibition. Mobsters took over the slot machine business. In the 1940s, the mob forcibly took over the racing wire service, and some policy operations as well, though it never achieved total dominance. Mob gambling reached Chicago Heights, Brookfield, Glenview, and other suburbs by 1940. In 1959, the Chicago Tribune reported that 10,000 employees worked at 1,000 gambling establishments in Cook County. Postwar Chicago gangsters profited from gambling in many other cities.

But law enforcement began to rein in illegal gambling. Police reforms in the 1960s and subsequent federal law enforcement activity (notably Operation Greylord) discouraged corrupt protection arrangements. In the 1980s, federal authorities used antiracketeering laws and witness protection programs in successful prosecutions of illegal gambling executives. Mob gambling, now focused on sports, remained large enough to lead to point-shaving scandals. Mobsters have profited from video poker and extortionate lending to desperate people with gambling debts.

Meanwhile, the public had become more tolerant of gambling, and women were catching up to men as gamblers. The state of Illinois and licensed corporations have become the major organizers of gambling. Illinois began operating a state lottery in 1975, with sales over $1.5 billion in 2000. By then, 4 privately owned casinos and 10 off-track betting sites had been licensed in the Chicago region. With its image sanitized, “gaming” attracted many middle-and upper-income bettors.

Bingo and other gambling remains important for some churches and private schools, but competition has hurt revenues. Fantasy football and other games centered in leagues and taverns are popular as well. Internet gambling emerged and regulation is being discussed. Since the 1950s, Gamblers Anonymous and similar groups organized to help compulsive gamblers, who make up about one percent of the population.