A Strong Case
There are plenty of reasons for Illinois to legalize online casino gambling, but opposition has proven insurmountable, and that's unlikely to change.
The Bulletin Board
THE LEDE: Illinois has a $3B budget deficit that online casinos could help fill.
MID-WEEK ROUNDUP: Michigan tax increase dead; AL & MS gambling expansion updates.
NEWS: The awarding of NYC casino licenses is one of the biggest stories of 2025.
VIEWS: Lobbyists are descending on Texas, but can they find success?
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Poker’s electronics problem.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Putting down the pen… For the sword?
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The Lede: Illinois Is Staring Down a $3 Billion Budget Deficit
Is online gambling the (partial) cure for Illinois’ $3 billion budget deficit?
Online gambling supporters say yes, but entrenched VGT interests in the state still strongly oppose online expansion.
The state and the industry also have issues to resolve. The bad blood from last year’s sports betting tax increase and DraftKings' short-lived idea to institute surcharges in states that exceed a certain tax threshold will not be quickly forgotten.
Still, there is some there, there, as Illinois fiscal issues will not magically vanish. Legalizing online casino games would generate an estimated $450 million in Year 1 for Illinois and as much as $800 million annually when the market matures.
Opponents, like Keith Wetherell, executive director of the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, believe the introduction of online casino games would eat into VGT revenue by as much as 40%.
“It lowers foot traffic in our establishments. That would be devastating to smaller bars and liquor license holders. A good portion of them wouldn’t survive,” Wetherell told the Chicago Sun-Times. “A lot of these are Mom-and-Pop shops. Gaming helps subsidize health insurance options and keeps people employed. They wouldn’t be able to shoulder that big of a loss.”
The Sun-Times reporting offers both sides of the argument:
“In a tough budget year, you’re looking at ways to increase revenue. This is one tool for that,” said state Sen. Cristina Castro, an Elgin Democrat who has introduced iGaming bills that previously fell short. “And it’s something that could be more palatable to constituents.”
“When you start letting people play from home, do you think they’re going to go to those places and spend money?” said state Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park. “It’s cutting off the nose and spiting the face.”
The paper also reports that Gov. J.B. Pritzker “called the idea “worthy of consideration” for Illinois,” noting that the governor’s budget will be presented in February.
Illinois lobbyist Steve Brubaker doesn’t expect the landscape to change:
Mid-Week Roundup: MI Tax Increase Dead; AL & MS Gambling Expansion Updates
Michigan online gambling tax increase loses steam: Per reporting from Play Michigan’s Corey Sharp, the proposed tax increase on Michigan sports betting and online casino operators is unlikely to make a return appearance in 2025: “It appears that the bills will not carry over into 2025, either. Singh and Moss would have to re-introduce new legislation, and there’s no indication that either of them will.” STTP Thoughts: This specific effort might be shelved, but don’t be surprised if another effort surfaces in Michigan or other locales.
Alabama gambling expansions could happen early: If Alabama is going to authorize a lottery and other gambling expansions, look for efforts at the beginning of the session, according to Alabama State Sen. Pro-Tem Garlan Gudger, who told Talk 99.5’s “Dixon & Vining” morning show that polling indicates Alabamans want to vote on a lottery: "Whether they want to vote for it or against it, you can tell that over 75% of the people in the polling that we've done shows that they want to be able to vote on it.” Gudger went on to say, “I'm going to be polling my colleagues in the Senate to make sure that they want to tackle this situation and this issue. And if they do, then we're going to make sure that we have the votes before we take it to the floor.”
Mississippi mobile sports betting update: Mississippi State Sen. David Blount, the Senate Gaming Committee Chairman, told the Clarion Ledger he has no intention of filing a mobile sports betting bill unless he is requested to do so by the Gaming Commission. However, Blount did say, "Of course, any Senate member can file a bill on that topic if he or she wants to and then we'll look at it. The House has been outspoken in wanting to expand gaming in the state, so I don't know what the House may do, but I'll have to wait and see if there's a Senate bill or not to consider."
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News: Latest on New York Casinos Including Timeline
According to Robert Williams, the executive director of the New York State Gaming Commission, at least one, and possibly all three, downstate casino licenses will be awarded by the end of 2025.
In a June memo, the NYSGC laid out the following timeline:
All project proposals (currently 11 proposals vying for the three licenses) must be officially submitted by June 27.
The proposals are sent to a community advisory committee, which must approve the project with a 2/3 majority by September 30.
Then it’s off to a Gaming Facility Location Board, which will recommend up to three applicants by December 1.
The NYSGC then has until December 31 to make its final selections.
“Williams said the projects will be graded on qualitative characteristics, including architecture and design, “the relationships that they have with local communities, with unions, how the different projects integrate into something as simple as traffic, sewer, water, and fire and police protection.”
“But the most important factors for any bid are quantitative and relate to economic development, Williams said. Those include the size of the capital investment, the revenue generated for the state and locality and the number of “quality” jobs it offers, he said.”
As STTP has previously said, barring a massive and otherwise unsolvable budget deficit, the legislature is unlikely to seriously consider online casinos until the licenses are awarded:
“New York is one of the crown jewels for online casino advocates, and with licenses likely tied to land-based casinos, it is quite important who is awarded the downstate casino licenses.
“The land-based industry is a mix of pro and anti-online gambling companies, and even within the pro crowd, there is a lot of disagreement over the licensing structure (tethered, untethered, or a mix of both).
“The winning bids are not expected to be announced until the end of 2025, so the likelihood of the New York legislature tackling online casinos before then is slim to none.”
Views: Texas Sports Betting Will Be a Focal Point in 2025
Gambling lobbyists have descended on Austin at the start of every legislative session in recent memory, and 2025 will be no different.
Casinos and sports betting will be hot topics, and sports betting supporters are keen on making 2025 the year, as the Texas legislature only meets in odd-numbered years — STTP expects a far bigger push for resort casinos, specifically from Miriam Adelson and Las Vegas Sands, with retail sports betting as a tack-on.
Mobile sports betting is a different matter.
"I would be willing to put a dollar on it," John Scott, a former Texas Secretary of State and for the Sports Betting Alliance, told CBS Austin. “He [Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick] has always made clear that if there is a groundswell within the Senate that they want this, that he’s open to it.”
“Last session, [legalized sports betting] came very close to passing… What the folks that are in favor of it want done is to just put it out there for the voters,” Scott said. “If the voters say, ‘yes’, then that’s what we’ll have.”
This is a refrain that I hear quite often: If there is enough support, Patrick will come on board. But for Patrick to change his mind, two things would need to be true:
Texas state senators would need to buck their party’s platform and publicly come out for gambling expansions (being open to it privately and openly supporting it are two very different things).
Patrick’s opposition needs to be political and not moral, and STTP believes it is a strong combination of both. It’s easy enough for Patrick and other party officials to pressure individual lawmakers (don’t make us primary you) to keep their support of sports betting private.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Poker has an electronics problem.
The World Series of Poker has tweaked its rules on electronic devices at the table, and there are growing calls from within the poker community to fully prohibit electronic devices, considering modern technology’s potential to destroy the integrity of the game.
As Maria Konnikova, who is in the process of writing a book on cheating in poker and gambling, said in October 2024, following PokerStars game integrity rule changes for the EPT Barcelona event:
"I think what PokerStars has done is amazing. I think you need to go a step further and not have any electronics anywhere on the table. Like, I think phones need to be on the floor, in your bag."
"I would actually also ban sunglasses because ... there's so much technology that (that can enable cheating)."
In the leadup to the World Game Protection Conference in Las Vegas, Buck Wargo reports for CDC Gaming Reports:
“When it comes to casino scams in 2024, the use of concealed cameras in poker games is the number-one attention-getter, said Willy Allison, founder of the annual World Game Protection Conference.”
In his writeup, Wargo highlighted a recent casino scam in Paris that resulted in two men “indicted for organized fraud following their arrest at Enghien-les-Bains casino.”
“One of the men at the poker table used an earpiece so small that not only wasn’t it detectable, but it had to be removed with a magnet,” according to Wargo. “His accomplice in a car outside gave him instructions while viewing the cards dealt in the game via a camera built into the side of the player’s phone sitting on the poker table.”
Considering current technology (and what we can potentially expect in 3-5 years), casinos need to start using the same technology to thwart cheaters.
Stray Thoughts
I’m really happy for Matthew Kredell, one of, if not the top legislative reporters in the space, who is hanging up his pen and paper (knowing Matt, I’m 100% certain he has one in his pocket at all times) to join the legislative team at FanDuel:
As I said on X, this is a great pickup by FanDuel, as “Matt is one of the very few that knows the ins and outs of the online casino quagmire. Glad to see his talents will be fully utilized.”