Illinois Eyes Online Casino Gaming to Boost State Revenue

Watch Illinois Eyes Online Casino Gaming to Boost State Revenue - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00All right, online casino gaming, let's get into it here.

00:03I know that Illinois is a very big state for sports wagering, one of the top five in the

00:06country.

00:07I would guess, Sam, that anything moving forward in that realm would push them maybe even a

00:12little bit higher.

00:13But I don't know, would it really count?

00:14It would count toward betting, I guess, it wouldn't count towards sports betting.

00:17Yeah, Illinois is one of the biggest states in the country.

00:21It has a huge population and it's done a tremendous job with the dollars bet, but it's expecting

00:27a $3 billion shortfall in its budget this year.

00:31So now lawmakers are kind of scrambling to see, hey, how can we fix that?

00:35How can we generate more tax revenue for the state?

00:38And Governor J.B. Pritzker, as he gets ready to propose his budget, it's being reported

00:42that he's open to legalizing online casino because of the tax revenue it might generate.

00:48So Illinois has generated half a billion dollars in taxes just from sports betting in a few

00:53years.

00:54And it actually made headlines last year when it decided to up the tax rate that it

00:59charges on operators.

01:00You had some sportsbooks like DraftKings respond, saying we're going to end up passing that

01:05tax down to bettors.

01:06That obviously didn't end up happening, but they've played around with this idea of getting

01:10more revenue for the state by increasing taxes.

01:13And sports betting is by no means this budget savior, but iGaming is a much higher margin

01:18business.

01:20The bill that was just filed is projected to raise about $800 million a year, and you

01:25compare that with only $200 million that Illinois got from sports betting this year, while it's

01:29still one of the biggest states.

01:30So it would be a much bigger windfall for the budget than sports betting.

01:36Illinois would be the eighth state to have iGaming, joining those like New Jersey and

01:40Pennsylvania.

01:41So that would be just huge for the sports betting operators that are really clamoring

01:44to get iGaming moving and have really been kind of frustrated with the lack of momentum

01:49on that front.

01:50And if you have a big state like Illinois leading the way, that's much more significant

01:54to kind of ushering the other big states and saying, hey, here's how much revenue they

01:58took.

01:59Maybe we could benefit from it as well.

02:00So it'll definitely be one we're watching this year, especially as the budget process

02:04develops.

02:05Illinois would be a huge, huge win for the iGaming industry.