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Illinois Moves Online Gambling Legalization Bill

Illinois Moves Online Gambling Legalization Bill

Added: February 12, 2014

Last year, as Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware put in place a regime of legalized and regulated online gambling, other American states waited and watched. The efforts in these three states have been by and large successful, prompting other states to reassess their stand.

One of the first states to make a move has been Illinois. The assistant majority leader of the Illinois House, Representative Lou Lang said it was likely that Illinois would pass gambling expansion proposals in 2014, which would include online gambling legalization, five new land casinos and slot machines at racetracks and airports. Such a move has been failing over the past two years. Lang pointed out that the circumstances have changed. Though it would seem an uphill task to expand gambling in an election year, Illinois is facing difficult tax and budget issues, which can be alleviated by additional revenue from gambling. For example, the state's income tax is scheduled to roll back from 5% to 3.75% next January. Legislators mat have to defer the roll back unless they can find alternate revenue streams. Gambling expansion is expected to provide between $400 million and $1 billion a year.

The gambling expansion bill is being pioneered by Democratic Representative Bob Rita. New land casinos have been proposed in Rockford, Danville, Chicago’s south suburbs, Lake County and Chicago. The bill also proposes to grant licenses to all land casinos for conducting online gambling and operating slot machines at state horse-racing tracks and the O'Hare and Midway international airports. Rita is prepared to address regional concerns. If a region does not want slots at racetracks because of fears that this may reduce land casino tax revenues, the bill can allow for the same. Rita promoted the bill stating, “I think the time’s right. It’s not only revenue for the state, it’s revenue for all of these regions.”

Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for Gov. Quinn, did not reject the idea outright. She stated that the governor would only support expanded gambling if it included ethical oversight. Corruption has to be kept out of the gaming industry at all cost. Though the bill has been moved by the Democrats, it enjoys Republican support as well. In fact the Republicans are more hopeful of the bill passing in a Democrat-controlled administration, which is more tolerant of gambling expansion. Illinois Legislature's spring session closes at the end of May. Observers expect plenty of for and against action as the bill is sought to be pushed through the House and the Senate.