Flutter is not flitting about when it comes to the Illinois legislature adding its proposed 25-cent or 50-cent tax on each individual sports bet, announcing early Tuesday morning that, effective Sept. 1, FanDuel will be passing the charge along to its customers, instituting a $0.50 transaction fee on all wagers placed in Illinois.
While FanDuel won’t start charging until days before the kickoff to the NFL season, the state of Illinois isn’t waiting, with its per-wager tax kicking in July 1 (assuming Gov. JB Pritzker signs the budget sent to him). Clearly, the braintrust at Flutter — FanDuel’s parent company — is hoping the braintrust in Illinois will use those few months to rethink the decision, noting in a press release that if the state pulls back on the transaction tax, the company will immediately remove the fee being placed on bettors.
* Daniel Koslovsky and Prabhdeen Kaur writing in Crain’s…
Online operators exploit behavioral biases — anchoring, overconfidence, the gambler’s fallacy — to coax consumers into wagering more than they intended. Stanford economists estimate behavioral biases are responsible for over 8% of what online sports gamblers wager. Moreover, online sports gambling is highly accessible, available to anyone with a smartphone at any time. Online sportsbooks rely heavily on aggressive marketing and promotions, familiar to any modern sports fan who is inundated by them whenever they watch a game on TV or in person. Odds are priced in confusing ways that require bettors to perform mental math to reveal the true price.
The results are predictably disastrous for the finances of bettors. A flurry of academic studies were released last year showing that consumers in states that legalized sports betting had less savings, more excessive debt, and overall worse financial health. One study estimated that annual net savings and investment fall by $144 per household after legalization. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that Illinois lost $730 million in 2023 that could have gone to college savings, retirement accounts, or small business investment because of legalized sports gambling. Dwarfing the $150 million the state collected in tax receipts from sportsbooks.
Even Illinoisans who don’t participate in online sports betting feel the squeeze. Researchers at UCLA and the University of Southern California have shown that banks have tightened credit limits and lending standards on all consumers in states that have legalized online sports gambling to account for the extra risk presented by the abundance of betting. Meanwhile, public resources — counseling, fiscal support, family services — strain under the weight of problem gambling, eroding the very tax revenues that boosters tout.
In this section, we study whether financial institutions responded to increased consumers’ financial risk by reducing credit card limits and limiting the type of loans they can take.
In Figure 4a, we present changes in the cumulative credit card limits for individuals with existing credit cards. We find that credit card limits start to decrease right after gambling legalization and continue to decrease as time passes. For general sports betting access, the overall ATT [Average Treatment on the Treated] estimate corresponds to roughly a 1.6% decline in credit card limits, while access to online betting leads to a nearly 2.7% decline. These results suggest that banks are responding to the increased financial risk caused by sports betting and lowering credit card limits to mitigate potential risk exposure. […]
While sports betting accessibility appears to be financially harming consumers, online access drives most of the effect we observe. Furthermore, the effect of sports betting does not appear to be driven by higher credit card delinquencies but by increased exposure and use of hard debts such as consolidation loans, secured loans, and bankruptcies. The fact that credit card delinquencies are unaffected or lower is likely due to financial institutions trying to mitigate their exposure to risk by lowering credit limits. Despite this, we observe consumers missing payments for other loans and products, leading to increased collections and auto loan delinquencies.
…Adding… Illinois Gaming Board…
Hi Rich,
Hope all is well with you.
We read with interest your blog post, Is online sports betting lowering credit limits for all Illinoisans?
The Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) approved a new rule at its April 24, 2025, meeting, to prohibit the use of credit cards to fund sports wagering accounts. This rule will soon be filed with JCAR.
During the meeting, IGB Administrator Marcus D. Fruchter said, “As part of our review, we determined that prohibiting the use of credit cards to fund sports wagering accounts is a justified and impactful advancement in Illinois sports wagering. There is a growing body of recent research showing that restrictions on credit usage to fund wagering accounts encourages responsible gambling and mitigates the harms of compulsive gambling. Problem gamblers are particularly at risk and studies have shown an often-problematic willingness for compulsive gamblers to use credit cards to place bets.
JUST IN: Prosecutors say they WILL retry state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after a jury in April deadlocked on all three counts Background:https://t.co/y9iQqvYjNc
News: prosecutors WILL retry state Sen. Emil Jones on charges of bribery, lying to FBI after April mistrial. Scheduling won’t happen today, though; defense wants him to be present for a hearing in late June on the date. AUSA says retrial would include “a few additional witnesses” https://t.co/4xLHD3sKUC
Attorneys and U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood are expected to set a new trial date later this month.
A new trial could last four weeks since prosecutors intend to call “a few additional witnesses,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri said in court.
It’s been a little more than a month since Jones’ trial ended with a hung jury. Despite being a relatively straightforward case, the trial featured plenty of intrigue. Jurors heard from a former red-light camera executive who wore a wire for the FBI after being caught giving “benefits” to public officials across the suburbs, and they viewed undercover recordings he made in 2019. […]
Ultimately, Jones’ trial turned out to be the third of four federal corruption trials in Chicago to end without a conviction since August.
A federal judge on Monday denied a motion by former House Speaker Michael Madigan seeking to overturn his recent conviction on bribery and other corruption counts, setting the stage for a high-stakes sentencing hearing later this week.
Madigan, 83, was back in the federal courtroom for the first time since a jury convicted him nearly four months ago. But unlike his marathon trial, Monday’s hearing was brief.
After both sides waived oral arguments on the defense motion, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey announced he was denying it, though his ruling, which he said is more than 100 pages, won’t be made public for some time.
Prosecutors wrote in a court filing late Friday that “Madigan has amassed a personal fortune of more than $40 million.” They did so as they complained of his “appalling” greed amid a scheme to trade on the office he once held, as well as former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis’.
But Monday, Madigan’s attorneys insisted that any claim that he was “lining his pockets” is “patently false.” They complained that prosecutors breached the direction of local courts when they “recklessly exposed” Madigan’s net worth, and they asked that it be stricken from the record. […]
Defense attorney Dan Collins insisted during the hearing that “Mr. Madigan’s net worth has nothing to do with this case.”
Blakey declined to make any ruling on the issue. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker simply said prosecutors opposed Madigan’s motion. It will likely be addressed again during a follow-up hearing Tuesday.
*** UPDATE *** Tribune court reporter Jason Meisner…
Judge Blakey has granted the motion to strike the disclosure of Madigan’s net worth from the public record. Please erase our story from your collective memories
[O]n Friday, June 13, Madigan’s wife, Shirley, asked for leniency in a videotaped appeal. Shirley Madigan says she can’t manage without her husband in the emotional 8-minute-long video.
“I really don’t exist without him,” she said. ” I wish I could say that I do, but I don’t know what I would do without Michael. I would probably have to find someplace to live.”
Defense lawyers collected close to 200 messages for the court in defense of their client, consisting of family members, former colleagues, labor leaders, and even clergy. Prosecutors, however, in their submittal to the court, pointed to Madigan’s 10-count criminal conviction.
“Madigan seeks extraordinary leniency from the Court—a sentence of probation for a former high-level elected official convicted of abusing his office for years through bribery, fraud, and conspiracy.”
* Sun-Times | Michael Madigan’s wife makes video plea to judge: ‘He loves me … I’m a part of him‘: Among other things, Shirley Madigan discussed the daughter she had before she married Michael Madigan — Lisa Madigan. Shirley Madigan explained how she used to put the now-former attorney general to bed with assurances that the child would see Michael Madigan when he returned from Springfield. Nevertheless, Shirley Madigan said she’d later find Lisa Madigan sleeping with a pillow and blanket near the door, so she’d “see him as soon as he came in.”
* WTTW | Judge Rejects Michael Madigan’s Motion for Acquittal as Ex-Speaker’s Corruption Case Heads Toward Sentencing This Week: The longtime speaker, who for decades acted as the most powerful politician in Illinois, breezed into court carrying an umbrella and sat silently at the defense table throughout the hearing. Madigan was convicted on 10 counts in total, relating to his efforts to secure a valuable state board position for disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis and to the most wide-ranging of the alleged bribery schemes outlined by the government involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison.
I asked Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch last week about the failure to pass an omnibus energy bill (the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act) during the just-ended spring legislative session.
“I think the same thing that happened on energy happened on all the things, you know. Big bills take time,” Welch said. “And I really do believe it’s important that we take the time to get it right and make sure we produce the best results for everyone.”
Welch compared the delay to his first spring session as House speaker, when another energy omnibus bill crashed and burned and then they came back in the fall and “passed one of the biggest pieces of legislation that ever passed in this state.”
Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters much the same thing last week.
“You don’t get everything done in one year,” Pritzker said. “(S)ometimes they spend two years, four years, six years trying to get something big done.” Like Welch, he also pointed to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which he noted took about a year and a half to pass.
Senate President Don Harmon, on the other hand, pointed to this summer’s expected temporary spike in electricity costs due to capacity charges by regional grid managers as a reason. Some of the proposals (like battery storage) would cost more in the short term, “so we’re trying to figure out how to how to respond to that anticipated spike,” Harmon told Illinois Public Media’s “The 21st Show.”
In the end, though, Harmon said, We just couldn’t keep the Christmas tree standing this year” — apparently meaning the bill fell under its own weight.
But other factors were important as well, according to numerous people who worked on the bill. Stakeholders would agree to changes, and then the drafts would come back that inexplicably looked little like what people had agreed to, which not only delayed the end, but also injected a lack of trust into the process.
This was particularly true with energy efficiency requirements, I’m told. A deal was finally cut with ComEd, and Ameren decided to move off its opposition, but there simply wasn’t time left to get that drafted before the clock ran out.
Many issues had been on the table for months, but a legislative working group came up with some ideas that couldn’t find quick consensus.
People were spread too thin across too many major items (including mass transit reform and the state budget), and as a consequence, way too much fell through the cracks.
The American Petroleum Institute blasted the energy storage portion of the bill for costing $9 billion for about one to two hours of peak electricity supply per day.
Proponents vehemently disputed the API’s figure, saying the estimate was way too high, and cost increases wouldn’t begin for a few years and cost decreases would start a few years later.
But that and other things helped drive the pipe trade unions away from bill. The unions represent workers at a massive Metro East coal-fired power plant and a major refinery, both of which are heavy industrial electricity consumers.
And their decision to oppose the legislation on May 31 meant there wasn’t enough time to fix that problem and bring the final language to the two Democratic caucuses.
The pipe trades have now officially declared themselves neutral, as have Ameren, Constellation Energy and the Illinois Energy Association. And some environmental lobbyists think the language on the table has a good shot at passage during the October veto session (or perhaps in January), even though their attempts to rein in power-hungry data centers were left out of the bill.
Whatever the case may be, the Legislature goes through this almost every year. They put all the big stuff off until the end, and then they don’t have the bandwidth to deal with a multitude of issues at once, although this year was particularly difficult.
Human beings tend to wait until the last minute to do things. But the leaders need to start enforcing earlier deadlines for giant issues like this energy proposal so they can deal with other time-sensitive things (the budget and revenues, for instance) at the end. Or maybe the other way around.
Far too many major issues were left to May 31. And that procrastination led to problems like a poorly drafted revenue bill that could imperil some TV and film projects in Illinois.
A buddy of mine who’s been at the Statehouse for decades grumped last week the leaders tried to do a five-month session in five days. That’s no way to run a railroad.
* A few more…
* Capitol News Illinois | ‘Clean Slate’ Act to seal nonviolent criminal records loses in race against time: “It wasn’t that (the bill) didn’t have enough sponsors, but the Senate sponsor of the bill was working on the budget, and the budget is going to take precedence over everything else,” said Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, the bill’s chief sponsor in the House, referencing Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “He had to focus on his No. 1 job, which is budgeteer.”
* Tribune | Cook County property tax reforms stall out in Springfield: Legislative reforms to Cook County’s property tax system almost uniformly stalled this legislative session, halting efforts to give tax breaks to more seniors and those walloped with big bills, and to help people hang on to some of their homes’ value if they lose the properties because of unpaid taxes.
…Adding… I forgot to post this release from the Clean Grid Alliance…
Following is a statement from Jeff Danielson, Vice President for Advocacy at the Clean Grid Alliance, in response to recent false claims about Illinois’ energy bill negotiations:
“In the days following the end of the legislative session, some have advanced false claims about battery storage power plants that need to be corrected. Multiple media outlets have cited the baseless statement that battery storage investment would cost $7 billion. And, suddenly and without explanation, this number has again been arbitrarily inflated to $9 billion–also baseless.
“The fact is, investment in battery storage will save money for Illinois consumers. It’s a critical tool to avoid future energy price spikes for ratepayers. There is no cost to consumers in the energy storage provisions until the energy storage is actually built–which, at the earliest, would be 2028. And again, after construction is complete, the increased energy storage will lead to lower prices for consumers.
“A 2024 Power Bureau analysis found that deploying 7.5 GW of storage in Illinois would save customers $480–840 million annually by reducing capacity, transmission, and energy market costs. In their own words—ComEd stated that an energy storage system of 750MW would have saved ComEd customers approximately $195M - $280M, in the latest PJM capacity auction, and could lead to $10-17 in savings per year on customer bills.
“Illinois is facing an energy reliability and affordability crisis. Just this week, Illinois customer bills have gone up to account for price spikes that are the direct result of the state not building enough new generation to meet skyrocketing demand.
“The bottom line: battery storage is the solution to spiking costs–not the driver.”
