Illinois sports betting 2020: Latest on legal gambling options

In the early June 2019, the Illinois state legislature approved legalized sports betting, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law June 28. However, it took much longer than expected for sportsbooks to be up and running in the Land of Lincoln. The original target date was the 2019 football season, but it took until March 2020. There was another significant development Thursday, however.

Online Gambling Illinois Laws

On March 9, 2020, former Chicago Blackhawks star and Hockey Hall of Famer Eddie Olczyk placed the first-ever legal wager in Illinois, betting $100 at Rivers Casino in Des Plaines (near O'Hare International Airport) on the Chicago White Sox priced +1600 to win the American League pennant.

At the time, Illinois became the 15th state with legalized sports wagering in the USA and the third-most populous behind New York and Pennsylvania. The brick-and-mortar sportsbooks were rushing as quickly as possible because both neighboring Iowa and Indiana had huge head starts and were siphoning off customers from Illinois. Because Iowa has no professional sports teams the vast majority of its residents are Chicago sports fans as well. They often travel to Illinois to see games.

Nearly $5.2 billion could be wagered on sports in Illinois in 2023, according to a forecast from the consulting firm Global Market Advisors. Illinois is considered one of the marquee markets in the country because of Chicago. The fans there are incredibly passionate, and it's a huge tourist destination in the summer. By comparison, the firm projected around $5.5 billion to be wagered in Nevada that year.

Illinois Sports Betting Legislation

The state's original legislation was a bit unique in that it gave brick-and-mortar operations such as casinos, racetracks and sports venues an 18-month head start over online-only operators like FanDuel and DraftKings (both sites have applied for earlier entry into the market) because it wanted to give in-state operators every chance to succeed before those two national behemoths jumped into the market.

Players must be at least age 21 to wager in Illinois, and the only mobile option had been for bettors to wager in person at the brick-and-mortar locations and then wager on mobile applications supplied by those sportsbooks.

However, because the coronavirus pandemic shut down all the brick-and-mortar sportsbooks in the state, Pritzker signed Executive Order 2020-41 early in June that temporarily allowed bettors to register for online sports wagering accounts from home, but they must be located inside the state. It's not yet clear how long "temporary" means before online customers are forced to go back to physical casinos to sign up.

The Illinois Gaming Board approved licenses for these casinos to operate as online sportsbooks: The Argosy in Alton, Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, Hollywood Casinos in Aurora and Joliet, Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Casino Queen in East St. Louis, and Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino.

On Thursday morning (June 18), the Rivers Casino became the first to take advantage, launching BetRivers.com in Illinois.

"We are excited to make history in bringing the first online sportsbook to sports fans in our home state just in time as American sports are coming back into action," said Richard Schwartz, president of Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive.

Illinois Sports Wagering 

The sports betting law prohibits wagering on collegiate teams in the state like Big Ten schools Illinois and Northwestern, plus DePaul, etc. Frankly, most Illinois college football fans root for (or against) Notre Dame, which isn't very far from the Illinois state line.

The law allows licenses not just for casinos, racetracks and off-track betting parlors, but also for up to seven professional sports facilities with a capacity of 17,000 fans or more. Thus, at some point bettors would be able to wager on the Cubs at Wrigley Field, the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, the Bears at Soldier Field, and the Bulls and Blackhawks at the United Center.

Also eligible would be SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, home of Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, and the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet – Chicagoland hosts the Camping World 400 NASCAR Cup Series race annually; it originally was to be run this Sunday (June 21) but postponed due to the coronavirus. It has yet to be rescheduled.