* Sponsor’s dot-points about the proposed gaming bill…

SPORTS BETTING

• Allows Wintrust Arena, home of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky basketball team, to qualify as a sports betting venue
o Initial license fee of 5 percent of AGR, not to exceed $10 million
o Valid for four years – could be renewed for four years with a $1 million renewal fee to the Gaming Board
o Current law allows seven master sports betting licenses, and no facilities have been awarded licenses to date by the Gaming Board
• Allows bets on Illinois college teams (not individual performances). Bets can only be placed in person, and this has a two-year sunset provision

HORSE RACING

• Allows stallions owned by non-Illinois breeders to bring their stallions to Illinois to breed with Illinois mares, and allows those foals to qualify for the Illinois Conceived and Foaled racing program.
• Removes the requirements that the stallion owners under the Illinois Standardbred Breeders Fund (the fund used to pay purses for the Illinois Conceived and Foaled program) must be Illinois residents.
• Adds a provision providing that while a non-Illinois based stallion involved in the program shall stand for service at and within Illinois at the time of a foal’s conception, semen from such a stallion may be transported outside of Illinois.
o Permanently removes provisions requiring that a mare must be inseminated in Illinois in order for the offspring to be eligible for the program and that semen from an Illinois stallion may be transported outside of Illinois. Current law provides that these provisions are temporarily suspended from 2018 until 2022.
• Provides that the Racing Board can grant a racino license in southern Cook County at any of its meetings and can reject applications that don’t conform to established procedures.
o The Board can consider amended applications – applicants would have current and future rights of existing Illinois racetracks when the license is granted

GAMING BOARD

• Creates a single renewal date for all casino, video and sports wagering licenses, and allows multi-year licenses across all gaming disciplines
o Changes the duration of the sports wagering supplier license from an annual term to a 4 year term to align the sports wagering supplier license with the casino supplier licensure term of 4 years;
o Allows entities holding several licenses across casino, video and sports wagering with different renewal dates to merge these dates into a single renewal date for all of the respective licenses. This would reduce considerable, duplicative work done by the Gaming Board’s (IGB) Licensing, Legal, Finance, Audit and Investigation units and eliminate similar redundancies for IGB licensees submitting multiple renewal applications; and
o Allows multi-year licenses across all gambling disciplines. This would eliminate the current requirement under the Video Gaming Act for annual license renewals. Initially, all video licenses would be issued for one year, and renewals would be for four years. This change would make the license periods for video gaming terminal operators, manufacturers, distributors and suppliers mirror the periods for casino licenses issued under the Illinois Gambling Act.
• Creates a sales agent and broker license in video gaming, with various requirements

CASINOS

• Provides that licensed casino and racino employees also can work in sports betting positions at the same facility
• Requires casino licenses to have fully executed labor peace agreements
• Changes state taxation of the Casino Queen in the Metro East to its modified AGR, with stipulations

VIDEO GAMING

• Limits home rule communities to a fee of no more than $250 per video gaming machine
• Prohibits communities from imposing a “push tax” on video gaming
• Allows qualified fraternal and veterans organizations deriving charters from national organizations to apply for video gaming licenses in communities or counties where video gaming is banned (excluding Cook County and Chicago)

Remember, it’s just a bill. Things can change, things can die.