Illinois sportsbetting market being hailed a success

In the two years after launching legalized sportsbetting in March of 2020 and the American state of Illinois reportedly banked some $122 million in wagering taxes as well as licensing and application fees worth approximately $81 million.

According to a report from the Daily Herald newspaper, these figures were revealed as part of a special investigation from the Illinois Casino Gaming Association advocacy group into the health of the Midwestern jurisdiction’s sportsbetting industry. This probe purportedly also found that local sports wagering afficionados had lost more than $812 million via in excess of 308 million bets with the lion’s share of these having been placed online.

Steady supplement:

The examination reportedly moreover showed that sportsbooks in Illinois contributed an average of $7 million in monthly tax revenues over the course of the previous year with the best period being last November courtesy of an almost $12 million haul. The Illinois Casino Gaming Association purportedly noted that such enterprises had furthermore amassed some $524.8 million in combined winnings with 15% of this sum going towards funding a range of the state’s capital projects.

Runner-up rank:

Tom Thanas serves as the Executive Director for the Illinois Casino Gaming Association and he reportedly explained that these figures mean that ‘The Land of Lincoln’ now sits in second spot behind only New Jersey in terms of the burgeoning American sportsbetting market. The lobbyist purportedly disclosed that Illinois has nine land-based sportsbooks, seven of which are located within casinos, and that these had combined to be the second-most lucrative enterprises of their kind in the United States last year.

Reportedly read a statement from Thanas…

“And the casinos that have an affiliation with sports gambling as part of their business are doing well and seeing a lot of additional foot traffic. That obviously translates into some folks staying and enjoying table games or slot machines.”

Prominent properties:

The probe from the Illinois Casino Gaming Association’s reportedly showed that the Rivers Casino Des Plaines facility near Chicago had processed almost 40 million bets since 2020 while the tallies for the nearby Grand Victoria Casino and Hollywood Casino Aurora enterprises had hit beyond 1.5 million and 11.9 million respectively. The investigation purportedly went on to divulge that the sportsbooks hosted by the Casino Queen and Fairmount Park Racetrack venues, both of which sit directly across the Mississippi River from Missouri, were the two most profitable such businesses in the state via a 68% market share of the wagers placed since March of 2020.

Successful scheme:

Chris Grove from California-based gambling research and consulting firm Eilers and Krejcik Gaming reportedly told the Daily Herald that he is not surprised by the ongoing triumph of Illinois’ sportsbetting market despite the continuing presence of a physical sign-up requirement that was briefly relaxed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The analyst purportedly proclaimed that the state of over 12.8 million people has moreover found a ‘sweet spot’ via its 15% tax on sportsbook profits.

A statement from Grove reportedly read…

“If you were to fast-forward 20 years, the largest sportsbook markets in the United States will largely correlate with the largest states in the country and Illinois is already up there in terms of size. You’ve got a tax rate and license fee structure that make operators believe they can make a profit long term.”