* Brenden Moore…

Illinois lawmakers approved gaming legislation Thursday that would allow for some betting on in-state college sports teams while putting a lid on local governments imposing “amusement push taxes” on video gaming terminals. […]

In the new bill, bets will be permitted on the final outcome of games but not individual performance. There is a July 1, 2023 sunset on the provision, meaning lawmakers will have to address it again in a few years if they wish to continue allowing the wagering activity. Bets must be made in-person.

Meanwhile, the proposal would prevent additional municipalities from enacting a “push tax,” which is placed on each bet made at video gaming terminals. Lawmakers have sought to put a lid on the practice, which they said would eat into revenue coming into the state. […]

However, the handful of cities, including Decatur, that have already enacted the tax will be grandfathered in, allowing them to continue collecting the tax, which has been subject to several lawsuits.

* Mitchell Armentrout…

Under the bill, which passed the state Senate 44-12 and the House 100-11, wagers on local college teams would have to be placed in person at a casino, limited to bets on the outcomes of games, not individual performances. The in-state ban would be reinstated in two years unless lawmakers pass another bill allowing it. […]

While the legislation will allow fans of DePaul and Northern Illinois to get in on the action, it won’t provide the betting boon it would if it allowed wagers outside brick-and-mortar casinos. The vast majority of legal bets in Illinois are placed online, accounting for upwards of 97% of the statewide handle, or the amount of money wagered. […]

Wintrust Arena would be allowed to open a sportsbook. While the 2019 gambling expansion allowed sports venues with capacities of 17,000 or more to open books, the South Loop home of the WNBA champion Chicago Sky only holds about 10,000.

Illinois residents would be able to sign up for sports betting accounts from their phones or computers beginning March 5, instead of doing so in person at a casino as required under the 2019 law. That so-called “penalty box” requirement, which was created to give casinos a head start on the industry over large online sports betting companies, originally had not been scheduled to expire until late 2022.

* Jerry Nowicki…

The bill also adds fire protection districts to the list of entities that can receive a charitable raffle license […]

The bill caps an annual fee that non-home rule municipalities can charge on video gaming terminals at $250, up from $25. […]

The bill also allows fraternal organizations, such as VFW posts and American Legions, to apply for gambling machine licenses, even if the municipality in which they reside has a local ban on them. Those provisions would not apply, however, to such facilities in Chicago and Cook County.

The bill also makes changes to the horse racing industry, loosening the requirements for the “Illinois Conceived and Foaled” racing program, such as allowing stallions owned by non-Illinois breeders to bring their horses to Illinois to breed with Illinois mares.

It also provides that semen from an Illinois stallion may be transported outside of the state.

I do believe that is the first time the phrase “semen from an Illinois stallion” has ever been posted on this-here website. Even so, let’s try to keep it clean in comments. Thank you kindly.

…Adding… Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen blamed the state for his company’s decision to sell Arlington International Racecourse to the Bears…

Carstanjen called the decision to sell Arlington “a comment on the archaic racing laws that really haven’t been changed in a material way in [Illinois] in 30-plus years, and no longer worked.”

In fact, those laws changed drastically in 2019 with the passage of a massive gambling expansion that allows horse racing tracks to become “racinos” with slot machines and table games as a means of supplementing dwindling purses for the state’s struggling horse racing industry. Churchill Downs had lobbied for that privilege for decades alongside other gambling interests, only to pass on the opportunity, blaming high taxes.

Carstanjen dismissed that legislation, saying “it wasn’t really passed in a form that was enough to make up for the racing paradigm in the state.”

So instead of investing in the 93-year-old track, the Lousiville-based corporation is opting to sell it to the Bears, who outbid a group led by former Arlington International Racecourse president Roy Arnold that wanted to keep the ponies running.

That is such hooey on Carstanjen’s part. The company didn’t want competition to Rivers Casino from a large and nearby racino.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Algonquin is one of several municipalities now looking to implement a local video gaming “push tax” before the Nov. 1 deadline. Click here.

*** UPDATE 2 *** The video gaming industry is now tracking 15 communities which may attempt to beat the Nov. 1 push tax deadline.

* Also…

NEW: Chicago has received five bids for city casinos, ⁦@chicagosmayor⁩ announces. Here they are: pic.twitter.com/1P0QQQ9o5O

— Alex Nitkin (@AlexNitkin) October 29, 2021