Illinois Lawmakers Vote To Approve Sports Betting On Last Day Of Session
Illinois is one step away from legal sports gambling after a last-ditch effort from Rep. Bob Rita dropped into place this weekend.
House lawmakers voted to approve a wide expansion of gaming inside a capital financing bill on Saturday, and the Senate followed suit on Sunday. Gambling provisions within the act comprise a long-awaited casino in Chicago and consent for both retail and online sports gambling.
The bill goes to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose current comments make it clear he’ll sign it into law. The governor helped shepherd IL sports gambling across the finish line, seeking to drive more than $200 million in extra earnings to his state.
Passage was, frankly, a remarkable feat taking into consideration the absence of advancement during the first five months of the year. Previous proposals from Rep. Mike Zalewski were all turned aside, and a perceived conflict of interest forced him to step back at the final days of session.
LSR has been keeping a close watch on the chatter this weekend and updating this webpage as the situation unfolded. Here’s the play-by-play:
Is Sunday the day for Illinois sports betting?
The Senate finally takes the ground after 4 p.m. local time. It doesn’t take long.
Sen. Terry Link presents the terms of the amended bill, which includes a total projected financial effect of $12 billion. Commendations and positive comments from Sen. Dave Syverson, the Senate Minority Leader, appear to indicate that passing is a certainty.
Comments are short and mostly surface-level, using a couple lawmakers poking around at narrow provisions that affect their constituents. Sen. John Curran is the only person who talks to sports gambling at any length, seeking clarification on the branding provisions for internet platforms.
Link is emotional as he shuts the event, reflecting on his 20-year effort to improve economic growth from manufacturing.
The chamber applauds as the board lights up green, and also the Senate concurs with the House changes by a 46-10 vote. Just like that, the bill that will legalize sports betting in Illinois is led to the Senate.
IL sports betting bill as amended
Here is the full text of the language:
What is in the amendment?
The new vertical financing bill includes 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 two official league data supplier Central system provider In plain terms, these categories allow casinos, race tracks, and sports sites to offer sports betting — equally in-person and online. The provisions that concern online betting, nevertheless, require in-person registration for the initial 18 months.
The amendment also authorizes a lottery execution encompassing 2,500 locations in the first year.
IL sports gambling details
The fee for a master sports betting license is calculated based on gross gaming revenue from the last year. Casinos will cover 5 percent of the number to offer sports gambling for four decades , up to a max of $10 million. That cap wasn’t present in recent models and should ease the load on large operators such as Rush Street Gaming. Rita also softened the projected tax rate down to 15% of earnings.
As you can infer from the categories, language mandating the use of official league info for props and in-play betting stuck. While there’s no integrity fee, the bill will not enable colleges and sports leagues to limit the types of available wagers. As written, in-state collegiate sports are completely off the board in Illinois.
The change removes the overall blackout period for online betting that snuck to an earlier version, but it will keep a modified penalty box for DraftKings and FanDuel. Daily fantasy sports companies will be permitted to compete at the sports gambling arena, but just master licensees can offer online wagering for the initial 18 months.
The amendment also creates three online-only licenses costing $20 million apiece, given on a delay via 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 items off their to-do record today, including a bill that increases the minimum salary for Illinois teachers. For now, however, there’s nothing new to report online sports betting.
Aside from the things we are already touched on, a couple other challenges have cropped up.
Perhaps most importantly, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot publicly opposes the bill as written. Her main concern is that the provision permitting sportsbooks interior of stadiums and arenas.
Mayoral resistance leads to’comprehension’
Here’s the announcement from Mayor Lightfoot, as mentioned 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 addition of a provision that would open up sports wagering in venues like Soldier Field. This type of proposal has the potential to undermine the viability of any Chicago-based casino through the diversion of customers and revenue from a casino. Since the effect of sports wagering in stadiums has not been fully assessed or analyzed, I cannot support the bill in its present form and urge the deletion of the stadium-betting provision”
On Saturday, however, the government releases a follow-up statement indicating that the conversation is still moving forward:
“I’ve spoken to Mayor Lightfoot about her issues with respect 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 limits on both the number of and locations for sports gambling venues. I am happy that we have reached this understanding…”
Mayor Lightfoot then drops her resistance via a different statement:
“After successful talks with the Governor, we’ve agreed to permit a limited amount of betting at sports venues subject to local control and oversight. These improvements to the gambling proposition will allow us to maximize revenue capabilities of a new casino for the Town of Chicago and guarantee a good quality of life to our neighborhoods that might otherwise be impacted. As such, I urge the passing of SB 690 as amended…”
Illinois House votes on sports betting Following a break for committee meetings and caucuses, Rep Bob Rita files a final amendment to the financing package. The sports gambling language looks mostly unchanged at a glance, although there are a lot of words to get through. The bill is called for second reading around 6 p.m. local time and proceeded directly to third.
By that point, it is apparent that House lawmakers have reached a agreement to pass a number of large bills — such as this one — before the end of the evening. The floor presentation becomes something of a victory lap for Rita, with several associates commending him for his wide efforts to shore up vertical infrastructure. In his final, Rita thanks Rep. Mike Zalewski for his job.
The House votes 87-27 in favor of passing, sending the bill back into the room of origin for concurrence. The Senate meets Sunday at 3 p.m.
Friday: Last gasp for IL sports gambling prospects
Friday was frantic in the state capitol, using an assortment of important issues to hammer out on the final day of the scheduled session. Lawmakers did create a dent in the pile of invoices, but leaders had been made to issue a bad-news bulletin extending the work week during Sunday.
Although sports betting remains stagnant, a significant effort has surfaced.
Rep. Robert Rita grabbed the reins on Friday, borrowing from the framework of Rep. Mike Zalewski to cobble together a compromise bill. His campaign ran out of daylight on the House floor, but the bonus weekend of lawmaking means there is still hope for sports gambling this season.
While there’s a momentum, failure to cast a vote on Friday makes the job a little bit taller. Any bills considered from here out there demand a 3/5ths supermajority to passa brink that could just be out of reach.
Here’s a chronological timeline of this day’s events:
A brand new automobile for IL sports betting Lawmakers begin the day behind closed doors, working to finalize the frame for IL sports betting. Most assume S 516 will serve as the vehicle, a Chicago casino bill that appears to be a suitable target for the enabling language. A midday curveball, however, shifts the focus.
Joe Ostrowski is a Chicago radio anchor who has had his ear to the ground nowadays, and he’s the first to show that everyone is looking in the wrong location.
Joe Ostrowski
???
@JoeO670
Some optimism in Springfield for sports betting.
SB 690 should drop very soon.
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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 in the Invest in Kids Act. The current version has cleared the Senate and awaits a floor vote at the lower chamber. Suddenly, some anticipate House lawmakers to submit a new amendment linked to sports gambling.
Sure enough, a placeholder pops up on the docket, with a hearing in 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 going to take place.
LSR sources suggest that there’s good reason to track the dialogue all the way up until the last gavel.
Senate Appropriations committee hearing
Sen. Link presents the amended bill to the committee, and… boy, is there a lot in it.
In addition to the gaming provisions, it also touches on taxes for cigarettes, parking, video lottery terminals, and a number of different mechanisms to increase state revenue. The total fiscal impact is near $1 billion, with sport gambling representing only a tiny component of the package.
It is the fastest of hearings, over in under five minutes. One member asks whether or not the bill raises the number of slot machines for every casino licensee — it will — and that is about it.
House Executive committee hearing
A heated floor debate on a marijuana bill (which ultimately passed) delays the home hearing by many hours.
After the committee eventually convenes, Rep. Mike Zalewski is a surprise addition to the dais at the front of the room. Although the long-suffering proponent of IL sports betting recently stepped back in the spotlight, Rita’s bill still lists him as the primary 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 brings 34 proponents and nine competitions (which grows to 18). Casino groups including Boyd Gaming, Penn National Gaming, and 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 gambling. Rita struggles to explain some of the finer points in detail, particularly as they relate to DraftKings and FanDuel. It is complicated.
The language enables online platforms, but online-only firms can not find licensure for the first 18 weeks of IL sports gambling. The host indicates he built his bill that way to”provide Illinois companies a ramp” into the new industry. Rita also notes that his amendment won’t affect the present status quo for DFS.
The committee recommends adoption of the change by an 8-5 vote, advancing the bill to the ground. There is still a great deal of work left to do before adjournment, both on sports gambling and on a number of critical issues — including the state budget.
Formerly, in Illinois sports betting…
This year’s effort to legalize sports gambling follows in the footsteps of this unsuccessful 2018 effort.
As it did last year, work started early in 2019. Lawmakers cobbled together many different possible frameworks, each catering to a specific set of stakeholders. Once again, however, nothing widely palatable had emerged as the past few hours of session ticked off the clock.
The proposed budget from Gov. J.B. Pritzker includes $217 million in revenue from sports betting, so there is more at stake than just the freedom to bet. Failure would force Illinois to watch from the sidelines while its neighbors at Indiana and Iowa trigger their new legislation.
Who can participate?
The notion of this”penalty box” is the biggest hurdle to a passage right now.
To make a long story short, a few casino groups are working to keep DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook out of the Illinois market. They argue that daily fantasy sports isn’t explicitly legal in the country, and these so-called awful actors should be excluded from licensure for three years. The real motivation is, clearly, that a desire to eliminate competition in the two companies working away together with all the New Jersey sports gambling market.
DraftKings responded by temporarily running a tv campaign pushing back to the obstruction from Rush Street Gaming.
How much will it cost?
The sports leagues have also gained more leverage with Illinois lawmakers than they have elsewhere in the country.
Most previous proposals for IL sports betting required payment of an integrity fee and using official league data to repay”Tier 2″ wagers. No US sports betting law includes a ethics fee, and Tennessee is the only one that has a data mandate.
Coupled with licensing fees topping out at $25 million and taxes amounting to 20 percent of earnings, these operational burdens can stand between the invoice and the finish line.
Who’s in charge?
Rep. Mike Zalewski carried the baton all spring, however, a lack of progress 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 stuff the enabling language into the broader gambling package before lawmakers head home for the year. In what could be seen as an encouraging sign, Senate Republican Leader Sen. Dave Syverson has signed on as a co-sponsor.
There’s no guarantee that bill passes, however, and perhaps it doesn’t contain sports betting provisions even when it really does.
Matt Kredell contributed to this story.
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