Numbers released by the Illinois Gaming Board on Thursday showed that the state’s gaming facilities had an excellent February.
Last month, Illinois casinos reported over $115 million in revenue from gaming. That was a 2.1% increase from the $112.6 million in the January Illinois casino revenue report.
Illinois had $15,734,127 in tax revenue with $6.5 million distributed locally.
Breakdown of Illinois Casino Numbers
From that $115 million, just over $88 million came from Electronic Gaming Devices and nearly $27 million of the revenue came from table games.
Illinois’ slot revenue ($88,046,773) was the highest monthly total for the state since July 2022 ($93.9 million). On the other side, Illinois’ table-game revenue ($26,969,474) was the first time the state didn’t clear at least $28 million since February 2022 ($21.5 million).
The slight increase in revenue comes after January’s revenue ($112.6 million) was a 1.6% decrease from December 2022 ($114.4 million).
In year-to-year comparisons, it’s an 18% increase from February 2022, when the state turned in $93.6 million in total adjusted gross receipts. Illinois’ February revenue was its highest total since last October ($115.9 million).
Rivers Casino in Des Plaines was once again the state’s highest earner, totaling just over $43 million in adjusted gross receipts. Rivers Casino had nearly $27 million in slot revenue and more than $16 million from table games.
Grand Victoria Casino ($12.1 million) in Elgin and Harrah’s Joliet Casino ($10.6 million) in Joliet were the other two of the state’s 11 gaming facilities to eclipse $10 million in total adjusted gross receipts.
There are 11 commercial casinos operating in Illinois with more on the way. Bally’s is in the process of planning a casino in Chicago and has struck a deal with the City Colleges of Chicago to begin a program for training dealers to work table games.
Illinois Online Casinos Proposed
The state’s gaming scene continues to grow, as Illinois sportsbooks routinely pass $1 billion a month in handle (or amount wagered) during the busiest times of year.
For 2022, Illinois sports betting operators took in more than $9.75 billion in wagers. The state has not reported figures for January 2023 yet; sports betting figures are typically about a month behind casino reports.
And speaking of casinos, it’s not just growth in the brick-and-mortar sector that’s a hot topic in the Land of Lincoln.
Proposed legislation to legalize Illinois online casinos has been filed in the state legislature.
Right now, only six states have online casino, also known as iGaming or iCasino. Those states are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and West Virginia. Those states plus Nevada also made online poker legal and regulated.
Illinois iGaming Could Be Game Changer
Two identical pieces of legislation have been introduced to make iGaming legal in Illinois. House Bill 2239 and Senate Bill 1656 were filed on Feb. 8. SB 1656 has been assigned to the Executive Committee. HB 2239 was referred to the Rules Committee on Friday for further review.
The list of six iGaming states has been stuck at six for more than a year, while the list of online sports betting states grew yet again on Friday when Massachusetts launched its mobile sportsbook market. More than 30 jurisdictions have added some form of wagering on sports, and most states have online options, including Illinois sportsbook apps.
If Illinois were to pass iGaming, it would be a huge shift for a segment of the industry that often has a tough time getting approval from local leaders. But iGaming is very lucrative – according to the American Gaming Association, the 30-plus sports betting states combined for about $7.5 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR) for 2022, whereas the iGaming sector, with just those six states, combined for about $5 billion in GGR.
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