Illinois agency launches study of gambling addiction Updated 8:09 am CST, Sunday, November 22, 2020 CHICAGO (AP) — A state agency has launched a one-year roughly $500,000 study on gambling. Gaming machines also became legal in locations like bars and truck stops, which remains a controversial decision. A lot of people say this is the case of increasing levels of gambling addiction in Illinois. Since 2012, over 30,000 video gambling machines have been installed in the state. Riverboat Casinos Moving to Land?

• CHICAGO — An 816-page bill introduced and passed by the General Assembly over the weekend will, if fully realized, transform Illinois into the gambling capital of the Midwest.
• SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) is conducting a yearlong study on gambling and gambling addiction within the state. The announcement of this study comes just months after sports betting became legal in Illinois. Right now, anyone 21 and older within the state of Illinois.
• The biggest state population-wise to legalize sports betting so far Pennsylvania, and the Keystone State did so in 2017. In late May, the state’s first mobile apps went online. (In New York, legal sports betting so far will be limited to on-premises at four upstate casinos.).

The gambling industry in the US is on the rise. Many countries are waiting for bills to pass so they could enjoy all the perks of online wagering. However, some countries are already there, like the state of Illinois.

Thanks to the 2019 Illinois Gambling Act, all residents of legal age can now place a wager in both land-based and online sportsbooks. This means that you need to be at least 21-years old in order to place a bet in Illinois.

So, let take a closer look at all the basic information that you need to know when it comes to sports betting in Illinois.

Is Online Sports Betting Legal in Illinois?

Being the fifth-largest state of the USA, Illinois has the potential of becoming one of the largest sports betting markets worldwide. However, the road to legalization wasn’t an easy one. There are still many things that need to be defined that will allow the best Illinois betting sites to operate in full power. For now, you can only register in-person at a land-based casino, before being able to play online.

Furthermore, the new law did legalize physical and online sportsbook, but with some limitations. For example, a sportsbook is allowed in casinos, racetracks or if it’s close to existing sports venues.

Did Something Change During The Pandemic?

During the pandemic, the true potential of online betting was brought to light. It became obvious that sports betting online is the thing of the future. The launch of the legal market was constantly interrupted and discussed, and then the pandemic broke. However, the governing bodies of Illinois passed temporary permission that allowed players to register online without visiting a land-based casino in person. The need for social distancing was what triggered this decision, and it was in good time.

Which Operators Are Allowed On The Market?

When Does Sports Betting Become Legal In Illinois

According to the current la of Illinois, only the existing operators with land-based casinos were able to offer online sports betting. Other operators who offered only online services will have to wait an 18-month period before joining the market.

This didn’t stop some of the major players from the market to step on the online scene. They decided to join forces with the existing Illinois casinos, and this helped them avoid the waiting period. Online providers who haven’t had the funds and means to launch immediately will have to wait until late 2021 when the online-only license becomes available.

Are Mobile Betting and Betting Apps Legal in Illinois?

If you are a resident of Illinois then you have the opportunity to place a wager from your smartphone while on the go or at home. For the time being, one casino is allowed to have only one online betting platform. But even with these restrictions, mobile betting has already conquered the market.

In 2020, Illinois lawmakers have proven that they are aware of the significance of legalizing online wagering. There’s more to be done about it, but the first steps have been made. Considering how much time people, and especially sports fans, spend on their mobile devices, it wouldn’t make sense to legalize sports betting without the mobile betting option.

Illinois online betting market is supported by some of the most experienced operators in the USA and the world. So their app has the same functionality as their websites.

Is Geolocation Required?

Illinois bettors should know that sportsbooks are under obligation to check their location whenever they want to place a wager or deposit funds into their accounts in that state. This is done via geo-comply software that pings every time you visit a sportsbook online. Of course, it’s important for you to know that you don’t need to be a permanent resident of Illinois to place a wager or to use a betting app.

What Sports Can You Bet On In Illinois?

The state of Illinois allows you to bet on a huge selection of sports and events. So, perhaps it would be easier to mention the events that you can’t bet on. Firstly, betting on collegiate events whose participants are representing a college and university is prohibited. Even though there was no mentioning if eSports, according to Illinois law, some events of relative skills could be allowed. But as far as wagering on eSports is concerned, it will become more clear in the near future since this trend should become part of the regular offer in every state.

View of Sauganash Hotel, c.1830

Americans were tolerant of gambling when Chicago was founded, and Mark Beaubien's Sauganash featured it. But gambling seemed at odds with a commercial society's emphasis on hard work and self-discipline. Further, as gambling itself commercialized, crooked professional gamblers appeared. Affluent people began to class gambling with idleness and vice. The Protestant clergy denounced gambling in the 1830s, and city officials, in the first of many crackdowns, jailed proprietors of two gambling houses.

Gambling appealed most to the poor and immigrants. Working-class men found an independence in gambling, in sharp contrast to their jobs, and risk taking and competition seemed to validate their masculinity. Bettors wagered on card games, checkers, backgammon, horse races, and prize fights. They played policy, a lottery-like game, and by the 1850s rowdy crowds gathered and gambled at rat and cock fights.

Washington Park Race Track, c.1900

When Did Gambling Become Legal In Illinois

Gambling became a major business. By 1850, entrepreneurs had established hundreds of gambling houses, typically associated with saloons, especially downtown. Some houses were not only honest but elegant. Gambling on horses was common and was integral to racetracks. By 1866, “pool rooms” accommodated racing fans away from the track. Gambling payrolls, rents, and customers' purchases in adjacent businesses were important to the city's economy.

By the 1870s, gamblers combined into syndicates to handle big risks. The biggest gamblers, led by Mike McDonald, were important political contributors, and officials were reluctant to enforce laws against gambling. Police were often personally sympathetic to gambling, and many accepted payoffs. But campaigns against gambling found a few eager allies among politicians, and even the tolerant mayor Carter H. Harrison was pressured into crackdowns on the more open forms of gambling.

Smashing Slot Machines, 1907

By 1900, three loosely organized syndicates controlled most commercial gambling. For the first time, big gamblers used violence in a struggle to control the specialized business of supplying racing news by telegraph, the strategic key to controlling lucrative off-track betting. Mont Tennes emerged as Chicago's most important gambler. While big gambling houses concentrated downtown, bookies and policy writers spread out into neighborhood newsstands, cigar and barber shops, and saloons. Promoters built racetracks beyond the city limits. In the 1890s, illegal casinos moved to the suburbs, a process accelerated by John Torrio in the 1910s.

South Side bowling alley, 1941.

Gambling was often associated with masculinity. Such male spaces as barber shops and saloons were sites for friendly wagers and headquarters for bookies and policy writers. Young working-class men threw dice on street corners, baseball players challenged competitors, and side bets were an important feature of bowling tournaments. South Side housewives were important participants in policy, however, many patronizing policy writers who took their business door to door.

Opponents of gambling redoubled their efforts in the 1890s. School officials struggled to exclude gambling from extracurricular activities. Federal legislation restricted use of the mails and interstate commerce for gambling. Illinois lawmakers banned racetrack bookmaking and policy.

But gambling bounced back and expanded. Pari-mutuel betting on races was legalized in 1927. Policy, popular among African Americans, grew as they were forced into segregated neighborhoods in the early twentieth century. Black gamblers contributed to Bronzeville churches and charities and invested in its businesses. Bingo became popular, and during the Great Depression churches and charities sponsored it to raise funds, drawing many women as players. Meanwhile telephones facilitated the gradual decline of the male-dominated horse parlor.

The Torrio-Capone organization expanded its limited gambling operations, especially after Prohibition. Mobsters took over the slot machine business. In the 1940s, the mob forcibly took over the racing wire service, and some policy operations as well, though it never achieved total dominance. Mob gambling reached Chicago Heights, Brookfield, Glenview, and other suburbs by 1940. In 1959, the Chicago Tribune reported that 10,000 employees worked at 1,000 gambling establishments in Cook County. Postwar Chicago gangsters profited from gambling in many other cities.

But law enforcement began to rein in illegal gambling. Police reforms in the 1960s and subsequent federal law enforcement activity (notably Operation Greylord) discouraged corrupt protection arrangements. In the 1980s, federal authorities used antiracketeering laws and witness protection programs in successful prosecutions of illegal gambling executives. Mob gambling, now focused on sports, remained large enough to lead to point-shaving scandals. Mobsters have profited from video poker and extortionate lending to desperate people with gambling debts.

When Did Sports Betting Become Legal In Illinois

Meanwhile, the public had become more tolerant of gambling, and women were catching up to men as gamblers. The state of Illinois and licensed corporations have become the major organizers of gambling. Illinois began operating a state lottery in 1975, with sales over $1.5 billion in 2000. By then, 4 privately owned casinos and 10 off-track betting sites had been licensed in the Chicago region. With its image sanitized, “gaming” attracted many middle-and upper-income bettors.

Bingo and other gambling remains important for some churches and private schools, but competition has hurt revenues. Fantasy football and other games centered in leagues and taverns are popular as well. Internet gambling emerged and regulation is being discussed. Since the 1950s, Gamblers Anonymous and similar groups organized to help compulsive gamblers, who make up about one percent of the population.