Online sports betting apps were authorized on June 18, 2020, when BetRivers went live. State regulators will also issue three stand-alone mobile sports betting licenses, though those could not be issued until at least 18 months after the first “master” license was issued (which occurred in June 2020 – more on this below). There are no tribal casinos in the state. The new Illinois sports betting law allows for statewide retail and online sports betting at casinos, racetracks, off-track betting parlors, and venues that house professional sports in Illinois. It was a very exciting day when sports betting became legal in Illinois. Nine months later, on the eve of the COVID-19-related shutdown of professional sports across the U.S., the first legal wager in Illinois was placed on March 9, 2020, at Rivers Casino, owned by Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive.
The bill, SB 690, checks in at more than 900 pages, and sports betting, which initially had stood on its own, was wrapped into it to get it passed during an extended legislative session. After a contentious negotiation process, Illinois lawmakers finally pushed legal sports betting through the state legislature as part of a massive capital bill on June 3, 2019.
