Illinois Online Betting

Illinois is home to numerous legal, controlled gaming options both online and in-person. In the physical realm, you’ll find riverboat casinos, racetracks and a lottery. Online betting can be regulated with a variety of horse racing betting sites and fantasy sports websites.
Sports gambling can be on its way to Illinois after a major gambling 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 cellular sportsbooks are licensed to take a complete range of sports wagers from anyone 21 or older and physically situated in state lines.
As it stands right now, Illinois is on its way to becoming a gambling powerhouse between its large population and wide variety of legal gambling options. The addition of online sports betting is particularly notable as that will fans throughout the state easy access to legal and safe wagering.
Online Betting Sites in Illinois
Online sports gambling is now legal in Illinois, but it’s going to be some time before the first apps are accepted to accept wagers from the general public. In the meantime, horse racing and fantasy sports sites and the online lottery are already legal and supply a similar experience.
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Horse racing, fantasy sports websites and also the nation lottery can offer their services in Illinois provided they possess the right licensing to do so. Each would-be gaming site must receive specific approval from the state gaming board until it may lawfully accept wagers from state residents.
One online sports betting operator has booked its place in the Illinois market up to now. Only days after the IL sports betting law has been approved, Australian company PointsBet.com announced a partnership with Hawthorne Race Course to construct a retail sportsbook at the monitor, offer betting through multiple off-track gaming places and to launch a mobile program.
FanDuel and DraftKings are very likely to join the fray at Illinois at some stage a well, but has detailed any plans it has for your nation. As further operators disclose their plans, 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 on the net from taxpayers. The current list consists of TVG, BetAmerica, TwinSpires and also a few others.
My personal recommendation would be to proceed with TVG or BetAmerica. These are the greatest and most well-known sites on the listing and have the most racing betting options.
Illinois also permits off-track betting (OTB) at specific locations across the state. As the name implies, OTB facilities allow you to place wagers on horse races at places aside from the actual racetrack. Each track may authorize a certain number of OTB locations for a total of 43 possible facilities. Presently, 27 OTB centers are busy. You can see the complete list .
Legal Illinois Sports Betting
Illinois legalized in-persona and cellular sports betting with a law passed in June 2019. After the House and Senate issued his stamps of approval, Governor J.B. Pritzker added his signature to turn the bill to the law of the land.
Under SB 690 (beginning on page 227), Illinois will issue licenses to casinos, racetracks and specialist sports stadiums to operate mobile sportsbooks to take wagers in person in addition to 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 apply for one of those three online-only licenses that will be issued under the law.
Now, it is merely a matter of time as state regulators draw up rules regulating the business, review applications from interested sports betting suppliers and issue the go-ahead for accredited operators to start accepting wagers.
The pending IL sports betting law will have its troublesome areas like high licensing fees and requiring in-person registration for the initial 18 months, but complete 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 action that has been taking place underground through local bookies and overseas betting sites.
Mobile Sports Betting at Illinois
Casinos, racetracks and stadiums that acquire sports betting licenses are going to be able to launch mobile apps under their own brand names. Casinos and racetracks are going to have the ability to accept clients from throughout the state while stadiums will have a 5-block radius in which they may accept wagers in-person or through mobile programs.
There are two important provisions associated with cellular betting in IL which will inconvenience a few bettors, but these issues will be resolved with the passage of time.
First, customers will be asked to register in-person with a certified sportsbook before betting online. This usually means you’ll need to see a nearby casino or racetrack to sign up for an account and verify your identity. Once you get that from the way, you’ll be able to wager at your advantage from a licensed mobile program.
Second, person online-only operators will be prohibited from entering the marketplace for the first 18 months unless they partner with a local casino. If an online operator chooses to go that route, it is necessary by law to run under the name of the casino that is online.
Online operators may also opt to wait 18 months then apply for one of three cellular betting licenses. Operators that decide to go that path will be allowed to operate under their own brand names, but they will be playing catchup after sitting outside for a year and a half.
The fantastic news is both provisions are set to expire after 18 months. At some point, you’ll be able to enroll online from any place in the state and also place wagers through websites such as FanDuel and DraftKings when they haven’t already partnered with a local casino or racetrack.
Illinois Sportsbooks
Under the new sports betting law, Illinois casinos and racetracks will be permitted to apply for sports betting licenses. These licenses will authorize the construction of in-person sportsbooks as well as the launching of mobile betting apps.
Accreditation fees for casinos and racetracks are set to be priced based on 5 percent of every operator’s adjusted gross receipts but max out at $10 million. Expensive or not, many if not all of the nation’s casinos are likely to apply for licenses. Pennsylvania established a similarly expensive licensing strategy and though PA casinos initially balked at paying that much to provide what is basically a low-revenue kind of gambling, they ended up applying for licenses one .
Sportsbooks at Stadiums
Among the more unique areas of the IL sports betting law is a provision allowing up to seven sports stadiums to apply for permits to operate sportsbooks. Stadiums that obtain these licenses will be allowed to take wagers on site as well through mobile devices within 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 law, the IL Lottery could put around 2,500 sports gambling kiosks throughout the country over the first year of this law being in effect. Following that, the lottery could place an extra 2,500 kiosks within the course of the next year to bring the total to 5,000 machines.
IL Lottery betting kiosks won’t be allowed to provide full-fledged sports betting; they may only offer you parlay-style wagers. The details of precisely those wagers would do the job still need to get worked out, but the basic gist with parlays is gamers need to select the outcomes of two games in return for getting better payout odds than wagering on just a single game.
Essential 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 gambling law, but the legislation itself also comprises a range of key rules which we all know will be set up once the initial sportsbooks and gambling sites go live.
In-person sportsbooks authorized? Yes
Online and mobile sports gambling authorized? Yes
Where will gambling take place? Casinos, racetracks and sports stadiums may apply for permits to operate on site sportsbooks and to Provide online betting
Sports betting kiosks: Illinois Lottery may operate up to 5,000 kiosks which will accept parlay-style wagers just Minimum age to wager on sports at IL: 21
Limited Events: No wagers permitted on Illinois college teams, minor league events and K-12 events Restricted Wagers: Professional sports teams may ask the Illinois Gaming Board to prohibit certain Kinds of wagers if they are concerned such wagers will impact the integrity of the matches Information Mandate: Licensed operators need to buy official information in the leagues for settling in-play wagers
Tax rate: 15 percent on adjusted gross sports wagering receipts
Added community tax: An additional 2 percent tax will be collected from operators situated 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 set up a voluntary self-exclusion program for people Who Would like to confine themselves from wagering
Past Efforts to Legalize Sports Betting in IL
Illinois’ most up-to-date move to legalize sports gambling isn’t the nation’s first effort — lawmakers and business stakeholders have been contemplating the issue for quite some time.
Two bills were introduced 2018 seeking to legalize sports betting in the event the Supreme Court overturned the federal prohibition (which it did). HB 4214 was a simple placeholder bill while SB 2478 could have generated the Sports Betting Consumer Protection Act.
SB 2478 lacked information regarding regulations, licensing conditions and taxation prices and passed the forming of regulations to some state agency. Which agency that would have been left unsaid in the invoice, but that also was decided at a subsequent point. The purpose in the short term was to only end the state-level prohibition of sport betting and then figure out the rest later.
A reading of the full text of the bill shows the writers also envisioned online sports gambling being legalized. The invoice referred to”electronic” sports gambling no more than 29 times as a potential form of gambling that would be regulated by the state agency eventually assigned to regulate the industry.
The support of local casinos helped improve the chances of sports gambling coming to Illinois, but casinos were a bit slower to talk on the situation. However, Arlington Racecourse sounded open to the idea when it advised the Daily Herald it would Prefer a casino to proceed with sports gambling:
“If we are treated both with all the casinos and we have table and slots games,” Arlington GM Tony Petrillo explained,”and then we have sports gambling, that’s a venture which would be quite plausible for this property.”
The 2018 attempts to legalize IL sports gambling failed to yield outcomes in the brief term, but new legislation enacted in 2019 constructed on these first attempts to turn that fantasy into a reality. Early disappointments have turned into actions with lawmakers finally getting fully on board with legal sports gambling.
Fantasy Sports
Real money fantasy sports gambling is legal in the federal level thanks to an exemption from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. The UIGEA determined fantasy sports for a contest of skill rather than luck since betting outcomes don’t depend on a single game or the performance of an individual participant.
State legislation also welcome fantasy sports so all of the major US companies that offer fantasy betting are readily available to residents. You’re welcome to register, deposit and win real money at any of these sites listed above.
If you are unfamiliar with daily fantasy betting, this is a sort of wagering in which you pick 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 game. A virtual salary cap is enforced, which compels you to make tough decisions when determining how to fill your roster.
As soon as you have a team, all you need to do is wait for that week’s games to play out in the real world. When the actual players score points and amass stats in the actual world, your fantasy team earns points. At the end of it all, the individual whose fantasy team gets the most points wins the contest.
You’re able to play in tiny contests where you pit your team against one opponent, moderate contests with 4, 3 or even 20 competitions or massive tournaments with hundreds or thousands of other men and women. Your purpose is to earn as many points with your team as possible and acquire a real money payout.
Illinois has an interesting bit of case law history regarding fantasy sports. In 2013, New York resident Chris Langone brought a suit against FanDuel.com in Illinois court. He sought to claim more than $500,000 in earnings from FanDuel and one of its clients under an old Illinois legislation called the Illinois Loss Act.
The Loss Act is a classic piece of anti-gambling legislation that makes gambling losses recoverable from the failure if the losses amount to over $50. If half an hour pass and the victim doesn’t assert the losses, anybody can recover those losses in court. Here is the applicable Part of the law:
(a) Any person who by betting will lose to some other person, any sum 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 cash or other thing of value, therefore lost and paid or delivered, at a civil action against the winner thereof, together with costs, in the circuit court…
(b) If within 6 months, such person who under the terms of Subsection 28-8(a) is entitled to initiate actions to recover his losses doesn’t actually pursue his treatment, any person may commence a civil action against the winner. The court or the jury, as the case may be, will ascertain the total amount of the loss. Following such determination, the court will enter a decision of triple the amount determined.
The suit was eventually thrown out due to Langone failing to satisfy the minimum brink of depositing money and since FanDuel itself cannot be considered a”winner of gambling” because it simply acts as a middleman between bettors.
Are fantasy sports legal in Illinois?
The major fantasy sports sites all operate in Illinois and the country is home to several men and women who perform every day, however the legality of DFS has not yet been completely, 100% settled together with laws. Back in December of 2015, Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an opinion that daily fantasy sports violate Illinois law, but no further action was taken and the major DFS sites have continued to operate openly since then.
Some lawmakers have also sought to push legislation which could legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports or outlaw the action altogether. House Bill 4323 introduced in 2015 and debated in 2016 would have formally legalized dream sports with the creation of this Fantasy Sports Contest Act, but that bill was shelved in 2016 and eventually died altogether in ancient 2017.
A separate bill additionally introduced in 2016 sought to move things from the opposite direction and classify the performance of a fantasy website for a crime. Luckily, that bill also expired in early 2017.
As it stands now, daily fantasy sports are explicitly legal nor illegal in Illinois. The current status quo works nicely for players and operators, but it will be wonderful to finally find the matter firmly settled one way or the other.
Many DFS legalization bills are introduced in the intervening years, but none have yet made it into legislation. Early 2018 saw some actions on a fantasy sports invoice, but excitement for this bill died and there have been no major changes since. Regardless of the AG’s 2015 view that DFS websites run afoul of Illinois gambling legislation, the significant daily fantasy sites do accept customers the state.
Lottery
Illinois was the first nation to take its lottery to the net after a federal judge ruled that it would be lawful for states to achieve that. The IL Online Lottery went live in 2012 and the web site allows residents to make an account and purchase individual tickets for Powerball, Mega Millions and Lotto.
Any state resident 18 or older may register an account and purchase tickets or subscribe to subscriptions for automatic purchases. Winnings under $600 are credited right to your lottery account and may then be pulled straight to your bank account. If you win more than $600, the state lottery claims department will contact you with instructions for claiming your cash.
Here’s something else interesting: the Illinois lottery is mainly accountable for states now being able to legalize online gambling and poker. In 2009, Illinois and New York asked the Department of Justice to clarify its stance on the Wire Act of 1961. Both nations had plans to sell tickets online but were uncertain if this strategy will run afoul of federal law.
It required the Dept. of Justice two years to respond but it was worth every minute of the wait. Not merely did the DOJ approve of online lotteries, but it dominated the Wire Act applies only to sports gambling. This choice is what paved the way for countries like New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware to legalize online casino poker and games.
Online Poker and Casinos in Illinois
Illinois has been flirting with the idea of online gambling legalization for many years now. 1 attempt came in 2013 when a significant rewrite of the state’s gambling laws included a bit about playing, regulating and taxing online casino and poker games. Legislators yanked the role concerning online gambling before the bill has been passed the subsequent month.
For a time after the 2013 bill failed, there wasn’t any word or indication that online gaming would come to Illinois any time shortly besides Senate President John Cullerton once calling internet gambling inescapable. If the people of Illinois are going to be gambling and playing poker online , why should not the country get a cut? It would be better to regulate it, enact much better defenses for players and keep those tax dollars stateside. This was the basic argument anyways.
Cullerton’s effort to add online gambling into the 2013 bill ultimately failed, but he says he is not out yet. He will continue to push the thought and hopefully make something happen for the gamers of Illinois. He also stated that internet gaming probably will not come to Illinois until lawmakers finalize and enact legislation to permit the building of new land-based casinos at the state.
In the long run, he said, internet gaming represents a simple source of cash for authorities in all countries. Lawmakers have the power to make a new business overnight and create a new source of revenue without increasing taxes. The people today want the freedom to spend their money how they please and say lawmakers like the notion of further earnings.
Online Gambling Bill Passes in the Illinois Senate
The upcoming major break for internet gaming in Illinois came about suddenly in May of 2017. With very little warning, language legalizing online gambling and internet poker has been inserted to a daily fantasy sports invoice at the behest of local riverboat casino interests.
According to local news reports, present casinos in Illinois see daily fantasy sports as a competing business model and were originally opposed to legislation regulating fantasy sports. However, those casinos’d been considering expanding to online gaming for quite a while. They could strike a deal with lawmakers and receive the online gaming speech added to the fantasy sports invoice.
In addition to creating customer protection regulations for daily fantasy sports, the modified bill seeks to legalize online gaming and issue permits to operators. Existing casinos, horse racing tracks and ADW operators will be licensed to apply for permits for an application fee of $250,000 plus a licensing fee of $10 million. Operators will be permitted to offset the hefty licensing fee against future taxes accumulated on gambling 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 house.
Is it legal to perform at offshore casinos or poker websites?
Article 28 of the Illinois Criminal Code appears to prohibit the mere act of playing with poker or wagering on games. The code doesn’t specifically mention that the internet, but it could be interpreted to apply to gambling on games anywhere with 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 the Section;
(2) knowingly makes a wager on the result of almost any match, contest, or any political nomination, election or appointment;
However, Illinois has never prosecuted an individual for playing games online. The state 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 running the poker training site CardRunners.com. There probably isn’t much legal risk related to playing at offshore poker rooms or rooms.
Even so, we don’t advise our subscribers to play for real cash at unlicensed poker websites. The legal risk may be small, but it is not zero. There is also a substantial financial risk related to playing sites that nevertheless accept Americans contrary to US gaming legislation. The Department of Justice has show