Illinois Gambling Tax Revenue Jumps 19% To A Record $2.7 Billion
Illinois collected a record $2.7 billion in gambling-related tax revenue in the last fiscal year, a 19.2% increase over the previous year, according to the state's annual wagering report released by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA). The total spans casinos, sports wagering, slot machines and the lottery.
The report, covered by Capitol News Illinois, shows sports wagering tax collections continuing their rapid climb, powered largely by high-risk, high-reward parlay bets.
Bettors in Illinois lost more than $875 million on parlays alone, accounting for over 60% of total sports betting losses in the state - a trend COGFA expects to keep fuelling state revenue growth.
The $2.7 billion figure marks a roughly 90% increase from fiscal year 2019, the last full year before Illinois approved the massive gambling expansion, including sports betting and new casino licences, that underpins the state's ongoing capital infrastructure plan.
More Growth Expected, Legal Fights Continues
COGFA's report projects further revenue growth as several new permanent casinos open, additional slot machines are installed in Chicago bars and restaurants, and sports wagering keeps expanding with new fantasy-style products.
Not every regulatory fight is going the state's way, however: a federal judge recently ruled in favour of prediction market Kalshi in its legal dispute over Illinois' attempt to regulate it as a sportsbook, a decision that could complicate how the state treats similar platforms going forward.
Why the Kalshi ruling complicates the picture
Illinois, home to the Chicago Bears in the NFL and the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, has tried to bring prediction markets like Kalshi under the same regulatory and tax regime as licensed sportsbooks, arguing that contracts tied to sporting outcomes amount to sports wagering regardless of how they are marketed.
The federal court's ruling in Kalshi's favour means the platform can keep operating in the state without an Illinois sports wagering licence for now, a result that could draw additional prediction-market volume outside the tax base COGFA's report is built on if the precedent holds or spreads to other states.
State lawmakers, who have relied on steadily rising gambling tax receipts to help fund the capital infrastructure programme approved alongside the original gambling expansion, are watching the case closely: any meaningful diversion of betting volume into unregulated or untaxed prediction-market products would cut against the growth trajectory COGFA's report currently projects.
Wagering Report
Illinois publishes its monthly casino and sports wagering figures through the Illinois Gaming Board, with the full annual wagering report covered in detail by Capitol News Illinois.
COGFA's annual wagering report is itself produced for the Illinois General Assembly and compiles data the Gaming Board and Lottery already publish monthly, rather than introducing new survey data of its own - meaning the headline $2.7 billion figure is a roll-up of already-public monthly filings rather than a new or disputed estimate, which is part of why the year-over-year comparison has drawn little pushback from industry groups so far.
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