Exclusive: Illinois casinos put brakes on egaming bill
Concerns were raised about state lottery online platform " new bill "highly likely" in November.
Illinois’ egaming bill was pulled last month because casinos did not want to host online gambling through a state lottery platform, Illinois Casino Gaming Association (ICGA) executive director Tom Swoik has told eGR North America.
Senate President John Cullerton introduced an amended version of HB 4148 on 15 May proposing the creation of a new Division of Internet Gaming in the Illinois Lottery, which would offer internet wagering on its own egaming platform, but took it off the state’s Executive Committee agenda before the 31 May procedural deadline.
Any of the state’s 16 licensed casinos and racetracks would have been free to apply for licences to host games through the Illinois Lottery, which is the first in the US to begin selling lottery tickets online.
The bill passed through three rounds of amendments and had strong legislative support, but Swoik said Cullerton pulled it because of concerns raised by the ICGA.
Swoik told eGR NA: “The bill mentioned one platform that would be developed by the state and everybody would have to use that platform.
“We’ve seen in some other countries where they have various internet gaming activities that there’s more competition, and it seems to generate more positive aspects, if there is more than one platform.
“So if some of the companies can develop their own platforms, obviously in compliance within the rules and regulations set by the state, then that would probably be a better type of format.
“Then if the state wants to have a platform too, because there may be some entities that are small and do not want to put that kind of money into developing their own platform, that would be fine too. But let’s just have additional platforms.”
The other concern the ICGA raised was that the bill did not explain how much of the casinos’ or racetracks’ revenues would go to the state and the platform operator.
The licence fee in HB 4148 was set at US$5m but there was no mention of the tax rate on gaming revenue.
“There’s no indication in there how much of the revenues would be going to those entities, if it’s a percentage cut and how that would be determined,” Swoik added. “That’s where we stand right now and Senator Cullerton has given indication that he wants to work on that and possibly do something in the near future. We’re certainly supportive of internet gaming, but there were some concerns that we felt needed to be addressed and we thought there may be some better ways to do the whole thing, and he has listened.”
Swoik suggested it was “highly likely” that an egaming bill could be passed this year once the legislative session starts again in November and that the ICGA would be supportive of any bill that addresses its aforementioned concerns.
The ICGA represents the majority of the state’s casinos, including properties owned by Caesars Entertainment, Penn National Gaming and Midwest Gaming & Entertainment.