New Illinois Gambling Bill set for Hearing

The new stand alone gambling bill in the state of Illinois is set to be debated very soon as Senator John Cullerton has circulated proposals of the bill. The hearing could be as early as this week as Cullerton has been sounding out opinions recently. The new bill has come into being due to the fact that the mention of online gambling was removed from the broader gambling expansion bill last month. The new stand alone bill however looks a little different to what was originally proposed and will include most forms of online gambling with the only thing missing appearing to be sports wagering. The licensing fee would be $20 million and taxes would be placed at somewhere between 7.5% and 20%. Cullerton also suggests that a new division of internet gaming be introduced in the state within the Illinois state lottery and that this would oversee and regulate the new market, and states existing licensees would also have to apply for separate online licenses in order to operate online gaming platforms.

There was initially a bad actor clause in the bill which meant that no online gaming company that had accepted bets from the US in the last 10 years would be automatically blocked from obtaining a license, however that was changed to those who were convicted of doing so. This all seems very familiar however and it was only last year that Senator Cullerton attempted to pass another online gaming bill but that one was taken off the states Executive Committee agenda before the procedural deadline. The reason that particular bill carried no initial weight was due to the fact that casinos withing the state wished to use their own software and platforms rather than the Illinois Lotteries platform. We will see what happens next and if this attempt can get any further.

Many players from the state of Illinois do of course enjoy plenty of online poker action with Bovada Poker being extremely popular.