- Lawmakers met during an Illinois House Executive Council to discuss the future of online gambling in the state.
- Many officials including Rep. Bob Rita spoke well of the potential profits and revenue online gaming could bring the state if allowed.
CHICAGO – The battle for online gambling continues in Illinois, this time with positive movement in favor of change.
Illinois lawmakers are now moving forward on a previous promise to bring online casino gambling to the forefront in the near future.
The Illinois General Assembly met this past week, and representatives from across the state met to discuss the promising future of online casinos.
While it took a while for Illinois to bring regulated online sports gambling into the fold, officials are hoping this process can be a bit smoother.
The biggest issue standing in the way of progress is the Internet Gaming Act.
Currently, the rules would prevent citizens from registering for online casinos while in close proximity or municipal boundaries to other platforms.
For those living in Chicago, this means traveling in order to participate in certain online gaming systems.
Representatives are working to find a way around this clause.
One of those representatives is Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Rita, who spoke at the meeting in favor of online gaming. He brought up the point of if the online casinos would hurt employment at the physical casinos.
John A. Pappas, CEO of Corridor Consulting, was able to shed some light on this situation by calling on leaders from the nonprofit iDEA Growth (iDevelopment and Economic Association) group.
Pappas said that he experienced no decrease in employment due to iGaming expansion in his work, adding that there is general increase in interest and business following these types of moves.
The biggest point that Pappas was trying to make was that a functional iGaming industry could mean big bucks for the Illinois government.
Pappas estimates as much as $250 million in revenue could be generated from the platform in the first year of activity alone.
He went on to say that further expansion could results in over $1 billion in financial benefit to IL in the first five years.
With these kinds of statements, it is only a matter of time before Illinois joins many other states in taking a shot on regulated USA online gambling.