Future of Illinois Gambling with Enacted Law
Illinois is gearing up for one of the most
extensive gambling expansions in the state’s history, with major changes
happening across both land-based casinos and online gambling, through Illinois
Gaming Board.
As it stands, there are only ten Illinoisgambling in the form of physical casinos
dotted across the state, but the State Senate recently passed a gambling bill
that will set the stage for Illinois to become Midwest’s gambling capital.
Already signed into law on June 28, the
so-called bill SB 690 (Illinois Gambling Act) will allow the state to offer
licenses to six new casinos, marking a record increase in legal gambling in the
Land of Lincoln.
The expansion package will not only
establish the biggest casino in the Midwest in Chicago but also introduce legal
sports betting throughout the state. The other five casinos will be fairly
small and will be located mostly in southern suburbs.
The whole expansion process is not going to
be without challenges. After all, this is something that a series of Chicago
mayors and Illinois politicians have been attempting to pull unsuccessfully for
long.
This begs the question: what is the
Illinois Gaming Board? How does it work, and what is its mandate?
What is the Illinois Gaming Board
The Illinois Gaming Board (often shortened
IGB) is a 5-member, governor-appointed board that was set up to act as
regulatory oversight of video gaming, Illinois gambling, online gambling,
riverboat gaming, and sports betting in the state of Illinois.
The board was originally instituted to
oversee the tax collection and regulatory aspects of video gaming and riverboat
casino gambling in the State.
At the very core, IGB is a regulatory body
for all gambling activities across the state of Illinois.
The Future of Gambling in Illinois
With the recent enactment of the Gambling
Act, the future of gambling in Illinois is brighter than ever. When the
expansion pack is implemented in its entirety, the number of gambling positions
– the number of seats available for Illinois gambling in casinos, racing
tracks, etc. – will jump from 44,000 to close to 80k. No wonder some pundits
are touting Illinois as the future Nevada of the Midwest.
If things go as planned, Illinois could
have a gambling industry thrice the size of any of its neighboring states. With
4000 gaming positions, the Chicago mega-casino along will be 3x bigger than any
of the existing ten casinos in the state.
Don’t forget that the casino expansion will
touch on online casino gambling, and will also make sports wagering legal. The
Sports Betting Act will authorize players to place their bets within a 5-block
radius of a sporting venue with a capacity of at least 17000 seats. The Board
will likely issue 7 or more licenses for big sporting venues across the state.
The state of Illinois could beat other
Midwest states like Indiana and Ohio by far when it comes to not only gaming
positions but also the number of casinos. Indiana had 13 casinos in 2017, while
Ohio and Iowa each had only 11 and 19 respectively, according to the American
Gaming Association.
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