Illinois Online Betting

Illinois is home to many legal, controlled gaming options both online and on site. In the physical realm, you’ll find riverboat casinos, racetracks and a lottery. Online betting can be regulated with an assortment of horse racing betting sites and fantasy sports sites.
Sports betting is also 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 this legislation, in-person and mobile sportsbooks are licensed to accept a full range of sports wagers from anyone 21 or older and physically located within state lines.
As it stands right now, Illinois is on its way to becoming a gaming powerhouse between its large population and broad number of legal gambling options. The addition of online sports betting is especially 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’s going to be a while before the first apps are accepted to accept wagers from the general public. Meanwhile, horse racing and fantasy sports websites and the online lottery are legal and supply a similar experience.
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Horse racing, fantasy sports websites and the nation lottery can offer their services in Illinois provided they have the right licensing to do so. Each would-be gaming website must receive special approval from the state gaming board until it could lawfully accept wagers from country residents.
One online sports betting operator has reserved its place in the Illinois marketplace so far. Only days following the IL sports betting law was approved, Australian firm PointsBet.com announced a partnership with Hawthorne Race Course to build a retail sportsbook in the track, offer betting through numerous off-track gaming places and also to launch a mobile program.
FanDuel and DraftKings are very likely to join the fray at Illinois at some stage a nicely, but neither has detailed any plans it has for your state. As additional operators reveal their plans, we’ll update this page with all key info.
Horse Racing
The Illinois Racing Board maintains a current list of gambling websites that are allowed to take wagers over the net from residents. The current list is made up of TVG, BetAmerica, TwinSpires and a few others.
My personal recommendation would be to proceed with TVG or even BetAmerica. These are the largest and most well-known websites on the list and have the maximum racing gambling choices.
Illinois also permits off-track betting (OTB) at particular locations across the state. As its name suggests, OTB facilities allow you to place wagers on horse races in places aside from the actual racetrack. Each track may authorize a certain number of OTB places for a total of 43 possible facilities. Presently, 27 OTB facilities are active. You may see the full list here.
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 their stamps of approval, Governor J.B. Pritzker added his signature to turn the bill into the law of this land.
Under SB 690 (starting on page 227), Illinois will issue licenses to casinos, racetracks and specialist sports stadiums to operate mobile sportsbooks to take wagers in person as well as mobile gaming programs to take wagers online.
Online operators like FanDuel, DraftKings and PointsBet may either partner with a local land-based sportsbook operator or use for one of those 3 online-only licenses that will be issued under the law.
Now, it’s merely a matter of time as state regulators draw up rules governing the industry, review applications from curious sports gambling suppliers and issue the go-ahead for licensed operators to start accepting wagers.
The impending IL sports betting law does have its own troublesome areas such as high licensing fees and requiring in-person registration for the first 18 months, but overall it can be regarded as a win for sports lovers. It is always welcome news when a state finally gets around to regulating and taxing an action that was already taking place underground via local bookies and offshore gambling sites.
Mobile Sports Betting in Illinois
Casinos, racetracks and stadiums that acquire sports betting licenses will be able to launch mobile apps under their own brand names. Casinos and racetracks are going to be able to accept clients from across the country while stadiums will have a 5-block radius in which they may accept wagers through mobile apps.
There are two key provisions related to cellular betting in IL that will inconvenience a few bettors, but even these issues will be solved with the passage of time.
First, clients will be required to enroll in-person with a licensed sportsbook before betting online. This means you ought to see a nearby casino or racetrack to sign up for an account and verify your identity. Once you get that out of the way, you’re going to have the ability to bet at your convenience from a certified mobile program.
Second, person online-only operators will probably be banned from entering the marketplace for the first 18 months till they partner with an area casino. If an internet operator chooses to go that route, it is required by law to operate under the brand name of the casino that is online.
Online operators might also choose to wait 18 months then apply for one of three cellular betting licenses. Operators that decide to go that path 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 good news is the two terms are set to expire after 18 months. At some point, you are going to have the ability to enroll 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 permitted to use for sports gambling licenses. These permits will authorize the building of in-person sportsbooks as well as the launching of cellular betting apps.
Accreditation fees for casinos and racetracks are set to be priced based on 5% of every operator’s adjusted gross receipts but max out at $10 million. Expensive or not, most if not all the nation’s casinos are very likely to apply for licenses. Pennsylvania established a similarly expensive licensing scheme and even though PA casinos originally balked at paying that much to provide what is essentially a low-revenue kind of gambling, they ended up applying for licenses one by one.
Sportsbooks at Stadiums
One of the more unique areas of the IL sports betting law is a provision allowing up to seven sports stadiums to apply for licenses to operate sportsbooks. Stadiums that acquire these permits will be permitted 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 business to a limited level. Under the law, the IL Lottery could put around 2,500 sports betting kiosks throughout the country over the initial year of this law being in effect. After that, the lottery may place an extra 2,500 kiosks within the course of the following year to bring the total to 5,000 machines.
IL Lottery betting kiosks won’t be allowed to offer full-fledged sports betting; they might just offer you parlay-style wagers. The specifics of exactly how those wagers would do the job still need to be exercised, but the basic gist with parlays is players must select the results of two games 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 as needed to enforce the brand new sports gambling law, but the law itself also includes a number of key rules which we all know will be set up once the first sportsbooks and betting sites 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 operate on site sportsbooks and also to Provide online betting
Sports betting kiosks: Illinois Lottery may operate up to 5,000 kiosks which can 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 events and K-12 occasions Restricted Wagers: Professional sports teams may request the Illinois Gaming Board to prohibit certain types of wagers if they are worried such wagers can impact the integrity of their games Data Mandate: Licensed operators need to purchase official data in the leagues such as settling in-play wagers
Tax rate: 15 percent on adjusted gross sports wagering receipts
Added local taxation: An additional 2 percent 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 Department of the Lottery will set up 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 gambling isn’t the nation’s first effort — lawmakers and business stakeholders have been contemplating the issue for quite a while.
The two bills were introduced 2018 seeking to legalize sports gambling in case the Supreme Court overturned the national prohibition (which it did). HB 4214 was a simple placeholder bill whilst SB 2478 would have created the Sports Betting Consumer Protection Act.
SB 2478 lacked information regarding regulations, licensing requirements and tax rates and passed the forming of regulations to a state agency. Which bureau that could have been left in the invoice, but that also was to be decided at a subsequent point. The aim in the short term was to simply end the state-level prohibition of sport betting and then find out the rest later.
A reading of the full text of the bill reveals the writers also pictured online sports betting being legalized. The invoice referred to»digital» sports betting no fewer than 29 times as a potential form of betting that would be regulated by the state agency eventually delegated to regulate the business.
The support of neighborhood casinos helped improve the chances of sports betting coming to Illinois, however, casinos have been a bit slower to talk on the situation. However, Arlington Racecourse sounded receptive to this idea as it told the Daily Herald it would like a casino to go with sports betting:
«If we’re treated both with all the casinos and we’ve table and slots games,» Arlington GM Tony Petrillo said,»then we’ve sports betting, that is a venture which would be quite plausible for this land.»
The 2018 efforts to legalize IL sports betting failed to yield outcomes in the brief term, but new legislation enacted in 2019 constructed on those initial attempts to turn that fantasy into a reality. Early disappointments have turned into action with lawmakers finally getting fully on board with lawful sports gambling.
Fantasy Sports
Real money fantasy sports betting is legal in the federal level thanks to an exemption by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. The UIGEA determined fantasy sports to be a competition of skill instead of luck since gambling outcomes do not depend on a single game or the operation of an individual player.
State legislation also welcome dream sports so all of the major US firms that offer fantasy betting are available to residents. You are welcome to sign up, deposit and win real cash at any of the sites listed above.
If you are unfamiliar with daily fantasy gambling, this is a form of wagering where you pick from all of the players in the league (it could be NFL, MLB, NBA, etc.) and draft a team of about 9 people depending on the game. A digital salary limit is enforced, which compels you to make hard decisions when determining how to meet your roster.
As soon as you have a team, all you need to do is wait for that week’s matches to play out in the real world. When the real players score points and also collect stats in the real world, your dream team earns points. In the end of it all, the individual whose fantasy team has the most points wins the competition.
You’re able to play in tiny contests in which you pit your team against a single opponent, medium contests with 3, 4 or even 20 opponents or massive tournaments with hundreds or thousands of different men and women. Your purpose is to earn as many points with your staff as possible and win a real money payout.
Illinois has an intriguing bit of case law background regarding fantasy sports. In 2013, New York resident Chris Langone introduced a lawsuit against FanDuel.com in Illinois court. He sought to claim over $500,000 in earnings from FanDuel and one of its customers under an older Illinois legislation called the Illinois reduction Act.
The Reduction Act is a classic bit of anti-gambling legislation that makes gambling losses recoverable from the loser if the losses amount to over $50. If six months pass and the victim does not assert the losses, anyone can recover those losses . Here is the applicable Part of the law:
(a) Any person who by gambling shall lose to any other person, any sum of money or item of value, amounting to the sum of $50 or more and will pay or deliver the exact same or any part thereof, may sue for and recover the cash or anything of value, therefore lost and paid or delivered, in a civil action against the winner thereof, together with costs, in the circuit court…
(b) If within 6 months, such individual who under the terms of Subsection 28-8(a) is entitled to initiate action to recover his losses does not in fact pursue his treatment, any individual may initiate a civil action against the winner. The court or the jury, as the case may be, will ascertain the total amount of the loss. After this conclusion, the court shall enter a judgment of triple the amount so determined.
The suit was finally thrown out because of Langone failing to meet the minimal brink of depositing money and because FanDuel itself may not be regarded as a»winner of gambling» because it simply acts as a middleman between bettors.
Are fantasy sports legal in Illinois?
The major fantasy sports websites all function in Illinois and the country is home to many people who play daily, but the legality of all DFS has yet to be completely, 100% settled with legislation. Back in December of 2015, Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an opinion that daily fantasy sports violate Illinois law, but no additional action was taken along with the major DFS websites have continued to operate openly since then.
Some lawmakers also have sought to push legislation that could either legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports or outlaw the activity altogether. House Bill 4323 introduced in 2015 and debated in 2016 could have officially legalized fantasy sports with the creation of the Fantasy Sports Contest Act, but that bill has been shelved in 2016 and finally died altogether in ancient 2017.
A separate bill additionally introduced in 2016 sought to move things from the opposite direction and categorize the operation of a dream website as a crime. Luckily, that charge also expired in early 2017.
As it stands today, daily fantasy sports are neither explicitly legal nor illegal in Illinois. The current status quo works nicely for operators and players, but it’ll be wonderful to finally see the issue firmly settled one way or the other.
Many DFS legalization bills are introduced in the intervening years, but none have yet made it into law. Early 2018 watched some actions on a dream sports invoice, but enthusiasm for that bill died and there have been no significant changes since. Regardless of the AG’s 2015 opinion that DFS websites run afoul of Illinois gambling legislation, the major daily dream sites do accept customers the state.
Lottery
Illinois was the first state to carry its lottery to 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 make an account and buy individual tickets for Powerball, Mega Millions and Lotto.
Any condition resident 18 or older may enroll an account and purchase tickets or sign up for subscriptions for automatic purchases. Winnings under $600 are credited directly to your lottery accounts and may subsequently be withdrawn right 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 is something else interesting: that the Illinois lottery is mainly responsible for nations now being able to legalize online gambling and poker. In 2009, Illinois and New York requested the Department of Justice to clarify its position on the Wire Act of 1961. Both nations had plans to sell tickets online but were uncertain whether this strategy will run afoul of federal law.
It required the Dept. of Justice two years to react but it had been worth every minute of the wait. Not merely did the DOJ approve of online lotteries, but it ruled that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting. This decision is that which paved the way for countries including New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware to legalize online casino games and poker.
Internet Poker and Casinos in Illinois
Illinois has been flirting with the concept of internet gaming legalization for many years now. 1 attempt came in 2013 when a significant rewrite of the state’s gaming laws contained a little about playing, regulating and taxing online poker and casino games. Legislators yanked the role about online gaming before the bill has been passed the subsequent month.
For a period after the 2013 announcement failed, there was no word or indication that online gaming would come to Illinois any time soon besides Senate President John Cullerton once calling internet gambling inevitable. If the people of Illinois are going to be gambling and playing poker online , why shouldn’t the country get a cut? It’d be better to control it, enact much better defenses for gamers and maintain those tax dollars stateside. That was the simple argument anyways.
Cullerton’s effort to add online gambling into the 2013 bill ultimately failed, however, he says he is not out yet. He’ll continue to push the thought and hopefully make something happen for the players of Illinois. He also said that online gaming probably will not come to Illinois until lawmakers finalize and enact legislation to allow the construction of new land-based casinos in the nation.
In the long run, he stated, internet gaming represents an easy source of money for governments in most countries. Lawmakers have the capability to create a new industry overnight and generate a new source of revenue without increasing taxes. The people today want the freedom to spend their money how they and say lawmakers like the notion of further earnings.
Online Gambling Bill Passes in the Illinois Senate
The next major break for internet 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 dream sports bill at the behest of local riverboat casino pursuits.
According to local news reports, existing casinos in Illinois see daily dream sports as a rival business model and were initially opposed to legislation regulating fantasy sports. However, those casinos had also been interested in expanding to online gaming for quite some time. They were able to strike a bargain with lawmakers and get the internet gaming speech added to the dream sports invoice.
Along with creating consumer protection regulations for daily fantasy sports, the altered bill attempts to legalize online gambling and issue licenses to operators. Existing casinos, horse racing tracks and ADW operators will be authorized to apply for permits to get 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 home.
Is it legal to play offshore casinos or poker sites?
Article 28 of the Illinois Criminal Code appears to prohibit the mere act of playing poker or wagering on games. The code doesn’t specifically mention that the World Wide Web, 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 this Section;
(2) knowingly makes a wager on the result of almost any match, competition, or even any political nomination, election or appointment;
However, Illinois has never once prosecuted an individual for playing games online. The country is home to some very high-profile poker players such as the likes of Taylor Caby, who has made millions of dollars playing online poker and conducting the poker coaching site CardRunners.com. There probably isn’t much legal risk related to playing at offshore poker rooms or casinos.
Nevertheless, we don’t advise our readers to perform for real cash at unlicensed poker websites. The legal risk may be small, but it’s not zero. There’s also a significant financial risk related to playing sites that still accept Americans against US gambling legislation. The Department of Justice has show

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