Illinois is 1 step away from legal sports gambling after a last-ditch effort by Rep. Bob Rita dropped into place that weekend.
House lawmakers voted to approve a broad expansion of gambling within a capital financing bill on Saturday, and the Senate followed suit on Sunday. Gambling provisions within the act include a long-awaited casino in Chicago and authorization for both retail and internet sports betting.
The bill goes to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose current remarks make it clear he will sign it into law. The governor helped shepherd IL sports gambling across the finish line, wanting to drive more than $200 million in extra earnings to his state.
Passage was, frankly, a remarkable accomplishment taking into consideration the absence of advancement during the first five weeks of this year. Previous proposals from Rep. Mike Zalewski were turned aside, and also a perceived conflict of interest forced him to step back in the final days of session.
LSR has been keeping a close eye on the chatter this weekend and upgrading this webpage as the situation unfolded. Here’s the play-by-play:
Is Sunday the afternoon for Illinois sports gambling?
The Senate eventually takes the ground after 4 p.m. local time. It does not take long.
Sen. Terry Link presents the conditions of the amended bill, which carries a complete projected financial effect of $12 billion. Commendations and positive comments from Sen. Dave Syverson, the Senate Minority Leader, appear to signal that passage is a certainty.
Comments are brief and largely surface-level, using a few lawmakers poking around at narrow provisions that affect their components. Sen. John Curran is the only person who speaks to sports gambling at any given length, looking for clarification on the branding provisions for online platforms.
Link is psychological as he closes the proceedings, reflecting on his 20-year effort to improve economic growth from manufacturing.
The chamber applauds as the board lights up green, and the Senate concurs with the House changes with a 46-10 vote. Just like that, the bill that will legalize sports gambling in Illinois is headed to the Senate.
IL sports betting bill as amended
Here’s the Complete text of the language:
What’s in the amendment?
The new vertical funding bill contains a multi-faceted gambling package headlined by a mega-casino at Chicago. The measure also offers six categories of licensure for IL sports gambling:
Master sports wagering
Occupational
Supplier
Management services provider Tier 2 official league info provider Central system supplier In plain terms, these classes make it possible for casinos, race tracks, and sports venues to offer sports gambling — equally in-person and online. The terms that concern online gambling, however, require in-person registration for the initial 18 months.
The amendment also authorizes a lottery implementation encompassing 2,500 places in the very first year.
IL sports betting details
The fee for a master sports gambling license is calculated based on gross gaming revenue from the previous calendar year. Casinos will cover 5% of that number to provide sports betting for four yearsup to a maximum of $10 million. That cap was not current in recent versions and should ease the burden on large operators such as Rush Street Gaming. Rita also softened the proposed tax rate down to 15% of earnings.
As you can infer from the categories, language mandating using official league data for props and in-play gambling stuck. Even though there’s absolutely no integrity fee, the invoice does enable schools and sports leagues to limit the types of available wagers. As written, in-state collegiate sports are off the board in Illinois.
The amendment removes the total blackout period for internet betting that snuck into a previous version, but it does keep a modified penalty box for DraftKings and FanDuel. Daily fantasy sports businesses will be allowed to compete in the sports betting arena, but only master licensees can offer online wagering for the initial 18 months.
The amendment also generates three online-only permits costing $20 million apiece, awarded on a delay by means of a competitive procedure.
Saturday: Agreement reached for IL sports gambling About three hours into the weekend session, we’re still in a holding pattern. House lawmakers have ticked several more things off their to-do list now, such as a bill that raises the minimum salary for Illinois teachers. For now, however, there’s nothing new to report online sports gambling.
Aside from the things we’re already touched on, a couple other challenges have cropped up.
Perhaps most importantly, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot publicly opposes the bill as written. Her principal concern is that the provision permitting sportsbooks inside of stadiums and arenas.
Mayoral opposition leads to’comprehension’
Here’s the statement from Mayor Lightfoot, as reported by Capitol Fax:
“I firmly support a gambling bill that sends a brand new casino and dollars to the town of Chicago. But, I oppose the inclusion of a provision that would open sports wagering in areas like Soldier Field. Such a proposal has the potential to undermine the viability of any Chicago-based casino through the recreation of consumers and revenue from a casino. Since the effect of sports wagering in stadiums hasn’t been fully vetted or analyzed, I can’t support the bill in its present form and advocate the deletion of the stadium-betting provision.”
On Saturday, however, the government releases a follow-up announcement indicating that the dialogue is moving forward:
“I have spoken to Mayor Lightfoot about her issues with regards to sports gambling, and we have reluctantly worked together with the bill sponsors to make clear that the legislative intent will reflect that there are limitations on both the amount of and places for sports gambling venues. I am pleased that we’ve attained this understanding…”
Mayor Lightfoot then drops her resistance via a different statement:
“After productive discussions with the Governor, we have agreed to permit a limited amount of gambling at sports areas subject to local oversight and control. These enhancements to the gambling proposition will allow us to maximize earnings capabilities of a brand new casino for the City of Chicago and ensure a fantastic quality of life for our areas which may otherwise be affected. Therefore, I recommend the passage of SB 690 as amended…”
Illinois House votes on sports gambling After a break for committee meetings and caucuses, Rep Bob Rita documents a final amendment to the funding package. The sports betting language looks mostly unchanged at a glance, although there are a lot of words to make it through. The bill is known as second reading about 6 p.m. local time and moved directly to third.
By that point, it is evident that House lawmakers have reached an agreement to pass quite a few large bills — such as this one — until the end of the evening. The floor presentation becomes something of a victory lap for Rita, with different members commending him for his broad efforts to shore up vertical infrastructure. In his closing, Rita thanks Rep. Mike Zalewski because of his work.
The House votes 87-27 in favor of passage, sending the bill back into the room of origin for concurrence. The Senate meets Sunday in 3 p.m.
Friday: Last gasp for IL sports gambling prospects
Friday was frantic in the state capitol, with an assortment of key issues to hammer on the final day of the scheduled session. Lawmakers did make a dent in the pile of invoices, but leaders were made to issue a bad-news bulletin stretching the work week during Sunday.
Although sports gambling remains unresolved, a significant effort has surfaced.
Rep. Robert Rita grabbed the reins on Friday, borrowing in the frame of Rep. Mike Zalewski to cobble together a compromise bill. His effort ran out of daylight on the House floor, but the bonus weekend of lawmaking means there is still hope for sports betting this season.
While there’s some momentum, failure to cast a vote Friday makes the job just a little bit taller. Any invoices considered from here on out demand a 3/5ths supermajority to pass, a threshold which could simply be out of reach.
Here’s a chronological timeline of the day’s events:
A brand new automobile for IL sports gambling Lawmakers begin the day behind closed doors, working to finalize the frame for IL sports gambling. Most assume S 516 will serve as the vehicle, a Chicago casino invoice that appears to be a suitable target for the empowering language. A midday curveball, however, shifts the attention.
Joe Ostrowski is a Chicago radio anchor who’s had his ear to the floor this week, and he is the first to show that everybody is looking in the wrong place.
Joe Ostrowski
???
@JoeO670
Some optimism in Springfield for sports betting.
SB 690 should drop very soon.
41
7:22 PM – May 31, 2019
Twitter Ads info and solitude See Joe Ostrowski’s other Tweets
The bill he cites (S 690) is not a gambling bill, but a step amending tax provisions at the Invest in Kids Act. The present version has already cleared the Senate and awaits a floor vote at the lower room. Unexpectedly, some expect House lawmakers to file a new amendment related to sports betting.
Sure enough, a placeholder pops up on the docket, with a hearing at the House Executive committee scheduled for 1:30 p.m. local time. A change of sponsor to Sen. Terry Link provides another indication that something is about to happen.
LSR sources suggest that there is good reason to track the conversation all the way up before the past gavel.
Senate Appropriations committee hearing
Sen. Link gifts the amended bill to the committee, and… boy, is there a lot in it.
Along with the gambling provisions, it also touches on taxes for cigarettes, parking, video lottery terminals, and numerous other mechanisms to increase state revenue. The overall fiscal impact is near $1 billion, together with sports betting representing only a tiny part of the bundle.
It’s the fastest of hearings, within under five minutes. One member asks whether or not the bill increases the number of slot machines for every casino licensee — it does — and that is about it.
House Executive committee hearing
A heated floor debate on a marijuana bill (which ultimately passed) delays the House hearing by several hours.
After the committee finally convenes, Rep. Mike Zalewski is a surprise addition to the dais in the front of the room. Even though the long-suffering proponent of IL sports gambling recently stepped back in the spotlight, Rita’s bill still lists him as the first House sponsor. The committee substitutes Zalewski in as a temporary member to cast a vote in favor of passing.
Without much lead time, the amendment attracts 34 proponents and nine opponents (which grows to 18). Casino groups including Boyd Gaming, Penn National Gaming, and also the Illinois Casino Association remain in relation to the Last language.
Members of this committee have loads of questions, but the majority of the discussion centers about gaming provisions not related to sports betting. Rita struggles to describe some of the finer points in detail, especially as they relate to DraftKings and FanDuel. It is complex.
The language enables online platforms, but online-only companies can not find licensure for the first 18 weeks of IL sports gambling. The host indicates he constructed his bill that way to”give Illinois companies a ramp” into the new industry. Rita also notes that his amendment won’t impact the present status quo for DFS.
The committee recommends adoption of this change with an 8-5 vote, progressing the bill to the floor. There is still a lot of work left to do prior to adjournment, both on sports betting and on a number of critical issues — including the state funding.
Previously, in Illinois sports gambling…
This year’s effort to legalize sports betting follows in the footsteps of the unsuccessful 2018 effort.
As it did last year, work started early in 2019. Lawmakers cobbled together a variety of potential frameworks, each catering to a specific group of stakeholders. Once more, however, nothing widely palatable had emerged since the last couple of hours of session ticked off the clock.
The proposed budget from Gov. J.B. Pritzker includes $217 million in earnings from sports betting, so there’s more at stake than just the freedom to bet. Failure would force Illinois to observe from the sidelines while its neighbors in Indiana and Iowa trigger their new legislation.
Who will participate?
The concept of this”penalty box” is your biggest barrier to some passage right now.
To make a long story short, some casino groups are working to keep DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook out of the Illinois marketplace. They argue that daily fantasy sports is not explicitly legal in the country, and these so-called awful actors ought to be deducted from licensure for three decades. The actual motivation is, clearly, a desire to get rid of competition from both companies working away together with the New Jersey sports betting market.
DraftKings responded by briefly running a television campaign pushing back on the barrier from Rush Street Gaming.
How much does it cost?
The sport leagues also have gained more leverage with Illinois lawmakers than they have elsewhere in the country.
Most previous proposals for IL sports gambling required payment of an integrity fee and the use of official league information to repay”Tier 2″ wagers. No US sports betting legislation comprises an integrity fee, and Tennessee is the only one that has an info mandate.
Coupled with licensing fees payable out at $25 million and taxes amounting to 20 percent of earnings, these operational burdens may stand between the bill and the finish line.
Who is in charge?
Rep. Mike Zalewski carried the baton all spring, however, a lack of advancement and also a perceived conflict of interest forced him to step aside in the 11th hour.
Start-of-day intel suggests that Rep. Bob Rita is actively working to material the enabling language in the wider gaming package before lawmakers head home for the year. In what might be seen as a reassuring sign, Senate Republican Leader Sen. Dave Syverson has signed on as a co-sponsor.
There is no guarantee that bill moves, however, and perhaps it doesn’t contain sports betting provisions even when it does.
Matt Kredell contributed to this story.
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