Illinois Online Gambling Bill Set to Reappear

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Thursday, May 16th, 2013 | Written by Lucy Brown

Like the monster at the end of a horror movie who always has just one last bit of life left after everyone has written him off, Illinois’ legislative attempts to regulate online poker appear poised for a resurrection.

While a formal bill has yet to be introduced, sources within the office of State Senate President John Cullerton have confirmed that he plans to introduce a new, standalone bill to bring online poker and online casino games to the Land of Lincoln (as Illinois is informally known).

Illinois has made multiple attempts to pass laws that would regulate various forms of online gambling. The first substantial push for online gambling regulation came in 2012. More recently, powerful members of the Illinois House and Senate attempted to attach online gambling regulation to a massive land-based casino expansion bill. Both attempts were unsuccessful; in 2012 the bill to bring regulated online poker to Illinois died in committee and the 2013 attempt perished during the negotiations over the larger issue of bringing more casinos to Illinois.

Early reports indicate that Cullerton’s bill is very similar to the text regarding online gambling that was stripped from the larger casino expansion bill in April 2013. If that’s the case, we’ll be looking at an online gambling bill that limits licenses to land-based operators and places oversight of Illinois’ online gambling industry in the hands of the State Lottery Commission.

The question of a “bad actor” clause in Illinois legislation has been in flux over the course of the issues’ evolution. At one point, a clause in a bill draft seemed to specifically prohibit any participation by companies (like PokerStars) that had taken part in the US market at any point. Then the clause was edited, then removed. It’s safe to say that the question is unlikely to be settled until we see the final bill head toward the governor’s desk.

It’s not clear if Cullerton will be able to make progress on the bill before the current legislative session in Illinois wraps up at the end of May. As Senate President, Cullerton obviously has the ability to fast-track legislation through his chamber, but the fate of an online gambling bill in the Illinois House is far less clear. And Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has sounded ambivalent notes about online gambling expansion, creating another potential hurdle for Cullerton’s plans.

Illinois is actually home to a few forms of online gambling in the status quo. The state was one of the first – and remains one of the only – in the United States to offer online lottery sales. And remote wagering on horse races has long been legal in Illinois, although the provision authorizing such bets expired in early 2013 and is currently stuck in a something of a legislative limbo.

Analysts believe Illinois would be able to support a large and diverse market for online gambling, and specifically for online poker. As the fifth-largest state in the U.S. by population, and with a major urban center that has historically shown substantial interest in casino play, Illinois is one of only a few states that industry observers believe could support an intrastate poker industry. But most also believe Illinois is unlikely to stay intrastate for long, at least when it comes to poker, as the state’s population base will simply be too tempting to other states like Nevada and Delaware that need lager customer bases to make poker a viable product.