Illinois is home to numerous legal, regulated gaming choices both online and in-person. In the physical world, you’ll discover riverboat casinos, racetracks and a lottery. Online betting can be controlled with a variety of horse racing gambling websites and fantasy sports sites.
Sports betting can be on its way to Illinois after a major gaming reform bill was approved by the legislature and signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker in mid-2019. Under that legislation, in-person and mobile sportsbooks are licensed to take a complete assortment of sports wagers from anyone 21 or older and physically situated within state lines.
As it stands right now, Illinois is on its way to becoming a gaming powerhouse between its big population and broad variety of legal gambling choices. The accession of online sports gambling is particularly noteworthy as that will enthusiasts throughout the state easy access to legal and safe wagering.
Online Betting Sites in Illinois
Online sports gambling is currently legal in Illinois, but it will be some time before the initial programs are approved to take wagers from the general public. In the meantime, horse racing and fantasy sports websites and the internet lottery are legal and offer a similar experience.
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Horse racing, fantasy sports websites and the state lottery may offer their services in Illinois provided they have the appropriate licensing to do so. Each would-be gaming website must get special approval from the state gaming board before it may legally accept wagers from country residents.
One online sports betting operator has reserved its place in the Illinois marketplace so far. Only days after the IL sports gambling law was approved, Australian company PointsBet.com announced a partnership with Hawthorne Race Course to construct a retail sportsbook in the track, offer betting through numerous off-track betting locations and also to launch a mobile program.
FanDuel and DraftKings are likely to join the fray at Illinois at some stage a nicely, but has detailed any plans it has for the state. As further operators reveal their strategies, we will update this page together with crucial information.
Horse Racing
The Illinois Racing Board maintains a current list of gambling websites that are allowed to accept wagers over the internet from taxpayers. The current list is made up of TVG, BetAmerica, TwinSpires and a couple of others.
My personal recommendation is to go with TVG or BetAmerica. These are the largest and most well-known websites on the list and have the most racing gambling options.
Illinois also licenses off-track betting (OTB) at particular locations across the state. As the name implies, OTB facilities enable you to place wagers on horse races at places aside from the true racetrack. Each monitor may authorize a certain number of OTB locations for a total of 43 potential facilities. Currently, 27 OTB facilities are active. You can see the complete list here.
Legal Illinois Sports Betting
Illinois legalized in-persona and mobile sports betting with a law passed in June 2019. Following the House and Senate issued his stamps of approval, Governor J.B. Pritzker added his signature to flip the bill to the law of the land.
Under SB 690 (starting on page 227), Illinois will issue licenses to casinos, racetracks and professional sports stadiums to run mobile sportsbooks to take wagers in person as well as mobile betting apps to accept wagers online.
Online operators such as FanDuel, DraftKings and PointsBet may either partner with a regional land-based sportsbook operator or use for one of those 3 online-only licenses which will be issued under the new law.
Now, it is just a matter of time as state regulators draw up rules regulating the industry, review applications from interested sports betting suppliers and issue the go-ahead for accredited operators to begin accepting wagers.
The pending IL sports gambling law will have its own troublesome areas like high licensing fees and requiring in-person registration for the first 18 weeks, but overall it can be considered a triumph for sports fans. It’s always welcome news if a country finally gets around to controlling and taxing an activity that was already taking place underground via local bookies and overseas betting sites.
Mobile Sports Betting at Illinois
Casinos, racetracks and stadiums that acquire sports betting licenses will have the ability to launch mobile apps under their own brand names. Casinos and racetracks will be able to accept clients from across the country while stadiums will have a 5-block radius where they may accept wagers in-person or through mobile programs.
There are two important provisions associated with cellular betting in IL that will inconvenience a few bettors, but these issues will likely be resolved with the passing of time.
First, customers will be required to register in-person with a licensed sportsbook before gambling online. This means you’ll need to visit a nearby casino or racetrack to sign up for an account and confirm your identity. Once you get that from the way, you’ll have the ability to wager at your convenience from a certified mobile program.
Second, individual online-only operators will be banned from entering the market for the initial 18 months till they associate with an area casino. When an internet operator chooses to go that path, it’s required by law to run under the brand name of the land-based casino.
Online operators might also opt to wait 18 months and then apply for one of three cellular betting licenses. Operators that choose to go that route will be allowed to run under their own brand names, but they’ll be playing catchup after sitting out for a year and a half.
The fantastic news is the two provisions are set to expire after 18 months. At some point, you are going to have the ability to register online from anywhere in the state and place wagers through websites such as FanDuel and DraftKings if they have not already partnered with a local casino or racetrack.
Illinois Sportsbooks
Under the brand new sports betting law, Illinois casinos and racetracks will be allowed to use for sports gambling licenses. These permits will authorize the building of in-person sportsbooks and the launch of mobile betting apps.
Licensing fees for casinos and racetracks are set to be priced based on 5% of every operator adjusted gross receipts but max out at $10 million. Expensive or not, many if not all the nation’s casinos are likely to apply for licenses. Pennsylvania established a similarly expensive licensing strategy and even though PA casinos originally balked at paying that much to provide what is basically a low-revenue kind of gambling, they ended up using for licenses one by one.
Sportsbooks in Stadiums
One of the more unique areas of the IL sports gambling law would be a provision allowing up to seven sports stadiums to apply for licenses to run sportsbooks. Stadiums that acquire these permits will be allowed to take wagers in-person too through mobile devices inside a five-block radius.
Sports Betting Kiosks
The Illinois Lottery has also been authorized to enter the sports betting company to a limited level. Under the new law, the IL Lottery could put up to 2,500 sports gambling kiosks throughout the country over the first year of the law being in effect. Following that, the lottery could put an extra 2,500 kiosks within the course of the next year to bring the total to 5,000 machines.
IL Lottery betting kiosks will not be allowed to offer full-fledged sports gambling; they may just offer you parlay-style wagers. The details of exactly those wagers would work still need to be exercised, however, the basic gist with parlays is gamers need to select the outcomes of two matches in return for receiving better payout odds than wagering on just a single game.
Key Illinois Sports Betting Rules
The Illinois Gaming Board and Department of Lottery are tasked with drawing up regulations needed to enforce the brand new sports betting law, but the legislation itself also includes a number of key rules that we all know will be set up once the initial sportsbooks and gambling websites go live.
In-person sportsbooks authorized? Yes
Mobile and online sports betting authorized? Yes
Where will gambling occur? Casinos, racetracks and sports stadiums may apply for licenses to run on site sportsbooks and also to offer online betting
Sports gambling kiosks: Illinois Lottery may operate up to 5,000 kiosks that will accept parlay-style wagers only Minimum age to bet on sports at IL: 21
Limited Events: No wagers allowed on Illinois college teams, minor league occasions and K-12 events Restricted Wagers: Pro sports teams can request the Illinois Gaming Board to prohibit certain types of wagers If They’re concerned such wagers can impact the integrity of the games Data Mandate: Licensed operators must purchase official data from the leagues for settling in-play wagers
Tax rate: 15 percent on adjusted gross sports wagering receipts
Added local tax: An additional 2% tax will be collected from operators located in counties with a population in excess of 3 million. Money collected from this tax will go to support which county’s criminal justice system.
Self-exclusion: The Illinois Gaming Board and also Department of the Lottery shall Establish a voluntary self-exclusion program for Men and Women Who Would like to confine themselves from wagering
Past Efforts to Legalize Sports Betting at IL
Illinois’ latest move to legalize sports betting is not the nation’s first attempt — lawmakers and business stakeholders have been contemplating the issue for quite a while.
The two bills were introduced 2018 trying to legalize sports betting in case the Supreme Court overturned the national prohibition (which it did). HB 4214 was a very simple placeholder bill whilst SB 2478 could have created the Sports Betting Consumer Protection Act.
SB 2478 lacked information about regulations, licensing requirements and tax prices and handed the forming of regulations on to some state agency. Which bureau that would have been was left in the bill, but that also was decided at a subsequent point. The purpose in the brief term was to simply end the state-level prohibition of sports betting and then find out the rest after.
A reading of the full text of this bill shows the writers also pictured online sports gambling being legalized. The bill referred to»digital» sports betting no more than 29 times as a possible form of betting that would be regulated by the state agency finally assigned to regulate the business.
The support of local casinos helped enhance the odds of sports gambling coming to Illinois, but casinos were somewhat slower to speak on the situation. But, Arlington Racecourse sounded open to this idea when it advised the Daily Herald it’d Prefer a casino to go with sports betting:
«If we are treated both with all the casinos and we have table and slots games,» Arlington GM Tony Petrillo explained,»then we’ve sports gambling, that is a venture which would be quite plausible for this property.»
The 2018 efforts to legalize IL sports betting failed to yield results in the short term, but new legislation enacted in 2019 built on those initial efforts to turn that dream into a reality. Early disappointments have finally turned into action with lawmakers eventually getting fully on board with legal sports betting.
Fantasy Sports
Actual money fantasy sports betting is legal at the federal level as a result of an exemption by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. The UIGEA determined fantasy sports for a competition of skill rather than luck because betting outcomes don’t depend on a single game or the operation of an individual participant.
State legislation also welcome dream sports so all of the major US firms that offer fantasy betting are readily available to residents. You are welcome to sign up, deposit and win real money at any of these websites listed above.
If you’re not familiar with daily fantasy gambling, this is a form of wagering where you select from all the players in the league (it could be NFL, MLB, NBA, etc.) and draft a team of about 9 people based on the sport. A virtual salary limit is enforced, which forces you to make hard decisions when deciding how to meet your roster.
As soon as you’ve got a team, all you have to do is wait for this week’s matches to play out in the real world. When the actual players score points and amass stats from the real world, your fantasy team earns points. In the end of this all, the individual whose fantasy team has the most points wins the competition.
You can play in small contests where you pit your team against one opponent, medium contests with 3, 4 or even 20 opponents or enormous tournaments with hundreds or thousands of different men and women. Your purpose is to make as many points together with your staff as possible and win a real cash payout.
Illinois has an intriguing bit of case law background concerning fantasy sports. In 2013, New York resident Chris Langone introduced a lawsuit against FanDuel.com in Illinois court. He sought to assert more than $500,000 in earnings from FanDuel and among its clients under an old Illinois legislation called the Illinois reduction Act.
The Reduction Act is a classic piece of anti-gambling legislation which makes gambling losses recoverable by the failure if the losses amount to over $50. If half an hour pass and the sufferer doesn’t claim the losses, anyone may recover those losses . Here is the important Part of law:
(a) Any person who by betting will lose to any other person, any amount of money or thing of value, amounting to the sum of $50 or more and shall pay or deliver the same or any part thereof, may sue for and recover the money or other thing of value, so lost and paid or delivered, at a civil action against the winner , together with costs, in the circuit court…
(b) If in 6 months, such person who under the conditions of Subsection 28-8(a) is eligible to initiate action to recoup his losses does not in fact pursue his treatment, any individual may commence a civil action against the winner. The court or the jury, as the case may be, shall ascertain the amount of the loss. After such determination, the court will enter a decision of triple the amount determined.
The lawsuit was finally thrown out because of Langone failing to satisfy the minimal brink of depositing cash and because FanDuel itself cannot be considered a»winner of gaming» because it only functions as a middleman between bettors.
Are dream sports legal in Illinois?
The significant fantasy sports websites all function in Illinois and the country is home to many people who play daily, but the legality of DFS has not yet been fully, 100% settled together with laws. Back in December of 2015, Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an impression that daily dream sports violate Illinois law, but no further action was taken and the major DFS sites have continued to function publicly since then.
Some lawmakers have also sought to push legislation that could legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports or outlaw the activity altogether. House Bill 4323 introduced 2015 and debated in 2016 would have formally legalized dream sports with the invention of this Fantasy Sports Contest Act, but that bill was shelved in 2016 and eventually died altogether in ancient 2017.
Another bill also introduced in 2016 hunted to move things from the opposite direction and categorize the performance of a dream website for a crime. Luckily, that bill also died in early 2017.
As it stands now, daily fantasy sports are explicitly authorized nor illegal in Illinois. The present status quo works nicely for players and operators, but it will be wonderful to eventually find the matter firmly settled one way or another.
Several DFS legalization bills are introduced in the intervening years, but none have yet made it into legislation. Early 2018 saw some action on a fantasy sports bill, but enthusiasm for that bill expired and there have been no significant changes since. Despite the AG’s 2015 opinion that DFS sites run afoul of Illinois gambling legislation, the major daily dream sites do accept clients the nation.
Lottery
Illinois was the first nation to take its lottery into the internet after a federal judge ruled that it could be legal for states to achieve that. The IL Online Lottery went live in 2012 and the web site enables residents to create an account and purchase individual tickets for Powerball, Mega Millions and Lotto.
Any condition resident 18 or older will register an account there and buy tickets or sign up for subscriptions for automatic purchases. Winnings under $600 are credited directly to your own lottery account and may then be pulled right to your bank account. Should you win more than $600, the state lottery claims department will contact you with instructions for claiming your money.
Here is something else interesting: that the Illinois lottery is mainly responsible for states now being able to legalize online gambling and poker. In 2009, Illinois and New York requested the Department of Justice to explain its stance on the Wire Act of 1961. Both nations had plans to sell tickets on line but were unsure if this strategy would run afoul of federal law.
It required the Dept. of Justice two decades to react but it was worth every minute of the wait. Not only did the DOJ approve of online lotteries, but it dominated the Wire Act applies only to sports betting. This choice is what paved the way for countries including New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware to legalize internet casino games and poker.
Online Poker and Casinos in Illinois
Illinois has been flirting with the idea of internet gambling legalization for years now. One effort came in 2013 when a major rewrite of the nation’s gambling laws included a bit about playing, regulating and taxing online casino and poker games. Legislators yanked the part concerning online gambling before the bill was passed the subsequent month.
For a period after the 2013 bill failed, there was no word or sign that online gambling would come to Illinois any time soon aside from Senate President John Cullerton after calling online gambling inescapable. If the people of Illinois will be gambling and playing poker online , why shouldn’t the state get a cut? It would be better to control it, enact much better safeguards for players and maintain those tax dollars stateside. That was the basic argument anyways.
Cullerton’s attempt to incorporate online gambling into the 2013 bill ultimately failed, however, he says he’s not out yet. He will continue to push the idea and make something happen for the players of Illinois. He also stated that internet gaming probably won’t come to Illinois before lawmakers finalize and enact legislation to permit the building of fresh land-based casinos at the nation.
In the long run, he stated, internet gaming represents an easy source of money for authorities in all states. Lawmakers have the capability to make a new business overnight and generate a new source of revenue without raising taxes. The people today want the freedom to spend their money how they and state lawmakers like the notion of further revenue.
Online Gambling Bill Passes in the Illinois Senate
The upcoming big break for online gambling in Illinois came about suddenly in May of 2017. With very little warning, language legalizing online gambling and online poker has been added to a daily fantasy sports bill at the behest of local riverboat casino interests.
According to local news reports, present casinos in Illinois view daily fantasy sports as a competing company model and were originally opposed to laws regulating dream sports. However, those casinos had also been considering expanding to online gambling for quite a while. They were able to strike a deal with lawmakers and get the internet gaming language added to the fantasy sports invoice.
In addition to generating customer protection regulations for daily fantasy sport, the altered bill attempts to legalize online gaming and issue permits to operators. Present casinos, horse racing tracks and ADW operators will be licensed to apply for permits for an application fee of $250,000 and a licensing fee of $10 million. Operators will be allowed to offset the hefty licensing fee against future taxes collected on gaming revenue.
The bill had been put to a vote in the Illinois Senate in May and passed by a vote of 42-10, but stalled in the home.
Is it legal to play at offshore casinos or poker websites?
Article 28 of the Illinois Criminal Code appears to prohibit the mere act of playing poker or wagering on matches. The code doesn’t specifically mention that the World Wide Web, but it could be interpreted to apply to betting on games everywhere using the following text:
(a) A Individual commits gambling when he or she:
(1) knowingly plays a game of skill or chance for money or other thing of value, unless excepted in subsection (b) of this Section;
(2) intentionally makes a wager on the result of almost any match, competition, or any political nomination, election or appointment;
However, Illinois has never once prosecuted a person for playing games online. The country is home to some very high-profile poker players including the likes of Taylor Caby, who has made millions of dollars playing online poker and conducting the poker training site CardRunners.com. There probably is not much legal risk associated with playing offshore poker rooms or casinos.
Even so, we don’t advise our readers to play for real cash at unlicensed poker websites. The legal threat may be small, but it is not zero. There is also a substantial financial risk related to playing sites that nevertheless accept Americans against US gaming laws. The Department of Justice has show
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