Illinoisans trying to understand legal gambling here should focus on three words: maturation, growth and development.
Sports gambling continues to mature as a revenue-generating enterprise in Illinois. Introduced in the 2020-21 fiscal year with 192,007 wagers that produced no tax revenue, by fiscal year 2024-25, it had grown to 389 million wagers for a total of $15 billion, which generated $429 million in taxes.
Meanwhile, video gambling shows continued growth. In the 10 years since it was legalized, 49,292 terminals have been installed in Illinois, generating record volumes of cash ($3.086 billion) and tax revenue ($1.080 billion) divided between the state ($921 million) and local governments ($158.8 million).
Finally, there is the development — “re-development” might be a better word — of casino gambling. Once a booming industry, casinos have lost big business to video-gambling machines at bars, gas stations and myriad other places.
Now there are additional seats in older casinos, “several new casinos across the state” and “racinos” — casinos opened at race tracks.
Casinos generated $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2024-25, up from $1.6 billion the year before.
And that’s before the really big casino planned for Chicago, featuring 4,000 gambling positions, is fully open.
Now operating on a shoestring, Bally’s Chicago had adjusted gross revenue of $125 million in fiscal 2024-25. That figure is dwarfed by the $504 million produced by Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, the state’s top revenue-producer.
But a fully open Chicago facility is expected to overwhelm Des Plaines.
The thinking is that visitors to Chicago from all over the world will be drawn to this pot of potential gold.
Gambling revenues can be overwhelming, but they represent a small percentage of state spending.
Casinos, video gambling and sports betting produced $1.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024-25. But the state budget was $54 billion-plus, and its overall pension debt is roughly $140 billion.
The latest numbers come from a recent report prepared by the Legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability.
It did not include revenue figures from the state lottery or horse racing, a once-prominent gambling player that has shrunk into virtual obscurity.
The report, written by revenue analyst Ally O’Mally, indicates that gambling here “continues to develop and expand” as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ambitious 2019 gambling-expansion plan “take(s) full effect.”
Casino gambling was legalized during the tenure of former Gov. James Thompson in the form of now-abandoned riverboat gambling.
Once the camel’s nose was under the tent, expansion advocates fought for years to fully open the floodgates. Powerful interests — one seeking expansion and the other fighting for a profitable status quo — mostly fought to a draw.
That changed when Pritzker took office. Revenue-hungry state officials joined with expansion proponents to expand casinos and video machines and approve new forms of heavily-taxed gambling like sports wagering and racinos.
What once was just 10 casinos has ballooned into 17 throughout three regions of Illinois — the Chicago and St. Louis areas and “downstate.”
The commission’s report forecasts “more changes” dead ahead — a “land-based” facility in Joliet and “permanent” ones in Waukegan and Chicago. It said it “remains to be seen” if video gambling continues to boom.
Sports gambling, still in its infancy, has exploded, primarily driven by the “seasonal variation and types of sports bet on.”
