The Illinois house and senate have approved SB 690, paving the way for legalized sports betting within the state.
The only downside? Most of the stakeholders are unhappy.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign a bill later this month that will allow sports betting online, at casinos and racetracks, and at sporting facilities like Wrigley Field.
However, in one of the more complex pieces of legislation tied to sports betting since the monumental Supreme Court decision in 2018, the Illinois bill comes with plenty of stipulations.
It comes with a 15 percent tax on adjusted gross revenue for businesses running sportsbooks. It bans betting Illinois college teams. A license to operate will cost $10 million and will be valid for four years.
It also includes a “penalty box” for DraftKings and FanDuel, barring them from operating within the state for 18 months.
Billionaire Neil Bluhm, owner of the Rivers Casino near Chicago, pushed for that stipulation, arguing that the two giant online operators have been doing business in Illinois illegally.
The legislature appeared to buy into that argument, finding it appealing to allow the state’s casinos and racetracks a chance to ramp up their operations before too many outside forces from other states invade.
But DraftKings and FanDuel were miffed. The two companies have been lobbying in Illinois for weeks. They did manage to cut the proposed “penalty box” time period from three years to 18 months, but they aren’t happy.
The NBA and Major League Baseball also lobbied in Illinois. They wanted what was once infamously labeled as an “integrity fee” from bookmakers, or a percentage of the total dollars wagered on their respective sports.
No such stipulation was included in the final bill. but Illinois will require sports betting operators to purchase official data from the leagues, if they want to offer “wagers that are placed after the start of a game (that) are not based solely by the final score or outcome of the event,” ESPN reported.
The bill also raises taxes on video poker, according to SportsHandle.
In other words, Illinois soon will offer legalized sports betting to its residents. But those customers will be forced to pay exorbitant prices and tax rates that should strongly discourage those interested in turning a profit from placing wagers through legalized institutions within the state.