GamblersArea Goes to Illinois – Casinos, Lotteries & Future Online Gaming

Illinois doesn't do anything small. The third-most populous state in the country has a gambling market to match, record-breaking casino revenues, the second-largest sports betting handle in the entire United States, and a network of video gaming terminals so vast it's literally the biggest of its kind on the planet. And yet, somehow, you still can't open a casino app in your browser and play blackjack from your couch in Chicago. That's the Illinois paradox, and it's one worth unpacking.

• Legal: land-based casinos, Video Gaming Terminals (VGTs), retail sportsbooks, mobile sports betting, state lottery
• Not Legal: online casinos, online poker, unlicensed offshore platforms
• Regulator: Illinois Gaming Board (IGB)
• Key Detail: sports betting must be tied to a licensed casino or racetrack (skin-based model)
• Age Requirement: 21+ for casinos, sports betting, and VGTs; 18+ for lottery & scratch-off tickets

Illinois currently operates 17 land-based casinos regulated by the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB). (Source: Illinois Gaming Board – About IGB) These range from riverboat-era establishments like Harrah's Joliet to newer venues such as Wind Creek Chicago Southland. In 2025, the state's casinos collectively posted a record $1.9 billion in gross gaming revenue, a 15% jump from the year before, with Rivers Casino Des Plaines leading the market.

The biggest story in Illinois right now is Bally's Chicago. Set to open its permanent integrated resort on the city's Near West Side in late 2026, the $2 billion project will be the first full-scale casino in Chicago's history, a distinction that's been held up for decades by political opposition and the powerful VGT lobby. Chicago holding out this long would be strange anywhere else, but then, the US has never had a single federal gambling law, which means every state gets to write its own version of this story. Illinois just wrote a particularly complicated one.

Here's something that surprises most people: Illinois has more slot-style machines than any other regulated gaming market in the world. The state's Video Gaming Terminal (VGT) network consists of nearly 49,500 terminals across more than 8,700 licensed venues – bars, restaurants, truck stops, and veterans' halls – which the IGB describes as the largest regulated video gaming network of its kind in the world.

VGTs were authorized under the Video Gaming Act in 2009 and by 2017 were already outearning traditional casinos. Through 2025, the network generated over $2.9 billion in net terminal income, with over $1 billion flowing to state and local tax coffers. Each machine caps bets at $4 and max wins at $1.19 per play, not exactly high-roller territory, but when you have nearly 50,000 of them, the numbers add up fast.

Chicago has historically kept VGTs banned within city limits, though the 2026 city budget opened the door to legalizing them locally – a move that has put Bally's Chicago and city officials at odds, since widespread bar-based gaming would directly compete with the incoming resort casino.

Before the casinos, before the VGTs, before the sportsbooks, there was the Illinois Lottery. Running since 1974 and one of the earliest state lotteries in the country, it has quietly outlasted every political fight the state has had about gambling since. 

It's not the most exciting product on this list, but with scratch-off tickets, Powerball, and Mega Millions all in the mix, it remains the most widely used form of gambling in the state, the one that doesn't require a trip to Des Plaines or a sports betting account.

Illinois legalized sports betting in 2019 and launched the market in 2020. In 2025, Illinois sportsbooks handled $15.65 billion in total wagers – up 11.7% from 2024 and the first time the state crossed the $15 billion mark. Only New York bet more. Revenue from those bets reached $1.477 billion for the year, a 21.6% increase, and the state collected nearly $560 million in taxes.

Over 97% of all wagers are placed online, with ten licensed mobile operators currently active – FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars, ESPN BET, bet365, BetRivers, Circa, Fanatics, and Hard Rock Bet. Retail sportsbooks exist at casinos and racetracks but are a rounding error compared to the digital volume.

There is one catch: Illinois introduced a controversial per-bet surcharge in mid-2025 – 25 cents per wager for the first 20 million bets annually per operator, jumping to 50 cents after that. Several major operators passed the fee directly onto bettors. The Sports Betting Alliance estimated the surcharge led to five million fewer bets in September 2025 compared to the same month in 2024.

Online casino gaming – slots, table games, poker – is not legal in Illinois as of 2026. But it keeps trying to be.

State Representative Edgar González Jr. has filed versions of the Internet Gaming Act for multiple consecutive sessions. His 2026 effort, House Bill 4797 (with Senate companion SB 3723), would allow existing land-based casino license holders to operate up to 3 online casino skins, taxed at 25% of gross gaming revenue. A $250,000 licensing fee, responsible gambling mandates, and workforce protections are included, along with an emergency clause designed to fast-track implementation if the bill passes.

The bill's main obstacle is the same one that has shut it in every prior session: the VGT industry. With nearly 50,000 terminals generating over $1 billion in annual tax revenue, terminal operators and their legislative allies view online casinos as a direct competitor. House Gaming Committee Chair Dan Didech stated during the 2025 hearings that opponents had "well-founded" concerns, and the 2025 version of the bill never made it out of committee.

Supporters counter that Illinois could unlock roughly $1 billion per year in new state revenue and that residents are already playing on unregulated offshore and sweepstakes sites, money that could be taxed and kept in-state. Whether 2026 finally breaks the cycle remains to be seen.

Illinois is not a state that's shy about gambling. It has the revenues, the infrastructure, and, with Bally's Chicago finally opening, the flagship property to match its ambitions. The sports betting numbers alone put it in a conversation with only one other state in the country. And those 49,500 VGTs aren't going anywhere.

What Illinois doesn't have is online casinos, and at this point that absence says more about internal politics than public appetite. The players are already there, they're just spending on platforms the state can't tax. Every year the Internet Gaming Act gets refiled, the fiscal argument gets a little harder to dismiss, and the opposition has to work a little harder to hold the line.

Illinois has a habit of getting there eventually. It legalized riverboat casinos when most of the Midwest hadn't. It launched sports betting and scaled it faster than almost anyone expected. Online casinos feel less like an if and more like a when, the when is just taking longer than it probably should.