Illinois casino legislation off the agenda for now

Article by : Charles Perrin Feb 23, 2024

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Discussions over Illinois online casino legislation have been put on the back burner, at least for now.

It was previously thought that progress was being made to bring Illinois iGaming legislation to the table, but there are no immediate plans to change the status quo after a hearing was canceled.

Earlier this week, the House Gaming Committee had scheduled in their diary a hearing for Wednesday, however this was scrapped.

According to House Gaming Committee Chairman Dan Didech, there were never any concrete plans to have a hearing, but he tried to downplay the significance of it.

He said: “A hearing is unlikely in the immediate future. I wouldn’t read too much into what gets posted for hearing.

“The default is that every bill in the committee gets posted every week.”

Rep. Edgar Gonzalez’s proposed HB 2239, which had carried over from last year’s session, was put forward to the Gaming Committee on January 29, but things appear to have stalled.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing Gonzalez is trying to appease the VGT community.

Indeed, VGTs generate more tax revenue for the state than Illinois casinos and sports betting combined.

VGTs have become a convenient way for Illinois residents to gamble, and the community have harbored reservations about how online casinos would impinge upon their revenues.

Discussing the concerns raised, Gonzalez said: “People in the VGT community tell me they’re concerned that we need to let their market grow and stand on more solid ground before we consider something like this.

“They feel it hurts their bottom line. In my head, I think this will be OK and the tax revenue we’re missing out on from iGaming, about $250 million, could go toward funding education or maybe shoring up our pension system.” 

With this being an election year, the chances of a hearing to be held later in the current session could be remote.

However, Gonzalez has urged lawmakers not to ditch casino legislation just yet.

He added: “If we’re hit with a recession of some kind in the near future, with adjustments from the federal reserve on interest rates, or maybe with upcoming elections the world economy might scatter a bit, that might cause reason for reconsideration of this bill sometime in the future.

“If we need to shore up finances, this will definitely be under consideration. And it’s important to have those discussions now to be ready.”

For now, anyway, it’s back to the drawing board for Gonzalez. The topic of casino legislation is something that could well drag on for at least another year.