Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker signed a gambling package on Friday that will establish a massive casino in Chicago, as well as a further five smaller regional casinos in the southern suburbs.
Lawmakers and Chicago mayors had previously been unsuccessful for a number of years in trying to get a license for a casino in the city.
But now, J.B. Pritzker has signed an agreement to increase the number of gambling positions within Illinois. The newly enacted legislation legalises land-based and mobile sports betting, while increasing the number of video gambling machines, as well as the maximum stakes on machines.
In total, the number of gambling seats where you can gamble inside a casino or bar, will grow from almost 44,000 to nearly 80,000.
This could lead to Illinois ending up with a gambling sector three times the size of any of its neighbours. The Chicago casino alone will contain up to 4,000 gambling seats – three times more than any of the state’s current 10 existing casinos.
$45 billion will be invested in the state of Illinois over the next six years. The state is expected to reap $2 billion in one-off licensing fees, and a further $400 million per year once the expanded gambling market matures.
