Legal Illinois sports betting should tip off by March Madness
They won’t be ready by Super Bowl Sunday, but it’s a good bet the first Illinois sports books will be open by March Madness.
Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, the Grand Victoria in Elgin and the Argosy in Alton, near St. Louis, filed the state’s first applications for sports wagering licenses after the Illinois Gaming Board issued rules governing operations Jan. 23. Those rules, which cover everything from how to place bets to what equipment to use, were unanimously approved by the board at its meeting Thursday.
The gaming board is reviewing the applications and plans to issue temporary operating permits to allow the sports books to launch “as soon as they are ready to do so,” board administrator Marcus Fruchter said Thursday.
The Illinois Sports Wagering Act, passed last year as part of a broader gambling expansion bill, allows the state’s 10 casinos, three horse tracks and seven of the largest sports venues to acquire a sports gaming license, with three additional online-only licenses to be issued 18 months after the first on-site license is issued. Sports betting locations will be able to offer online betting as well, but that will likely come after the bricksand-mortar facilities open.
The gaming board formally opened the application process in December, but applicants waited for the operating rules before filing. Gaming officials did not offer a specific timeline for approval or the launch of operations, but several sources said the first sports books could be open by the time the NCAA men’s basketball tournament tips off in March.
Rep. Mike Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat who helped craft the legislation, said the casinos that have filed their applications “have the best chance” of being ready for the Final Four.
“There’s a healthy dose of optimism that they’ll be able to make a bet by March Madness,” Zalewski said Thursday. “That’s a reasonable goal given where we are on the timeline.”
Rivers Casino got a head start on the process when it opened BetRivers SportsBar in December, with 32 leather lounge chairs, a 47foot-wide video wall topped by a sports ticker and five betting windows.
“Rivers is working towards opening its BetRivers Sportsbook as quickly as possible,” said Corey Wise, the casino’s general manager.
Sports wagering is one facet of the state’s sweeping gambling expansion law, which ushers in the biggest change in the gambling landscape since Illinois approved riverboat casinos in 1990. Signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in June, the legislation provides for six new casinos, 20 sports books and thousands of new gaming positions like slot machines or seats at a blackjack table.
The gaming board is reviewing 10 applications for five of the six new casino licenses, with plans for a sixth casino in Chicago stalled as lawmakers reconsider a proposed 33.3% city gambling tax that may be prohibitive for developers.
In the south suburbs, four applicants are competing to build a casino in either Calumet City, Homewood/ East Hazel Crest, Lynwood or Matteson. On Thursday, the gaming board approved a change of venue for the Matteson proposal, which is shifting to the site of a former Carson’s department store at the Market Square Crossing redevelopment project near U.S. 30 and Cicero Avenue.
South Suburban Development, which is partnering with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma on the proposed Matteson casino, decided to relocate from a vacant site at the corner of Harlem Avenue and U.S. 30 after residents in neighboring Frankfort complained it was too close to a school.
Fruchter said Thursday the gambling expansion is proceeding apace, with staff continuing to analyze the 10 casino applications.
The gaming board has 12 months from the Oct. 28 application deadline to process and award the five new licenses, which also include proposed casinos in Waukegan, Rockford, Danville and Williamson County in southern Illinois.