Sports Betting in Illinois Hits New Record in October

Until March 5, 2022, Illinois sports bettors were required to visit an Illinois casino or racetrack in order to register for an online sports betting account.  Illinois gamblers can now set up accounts directly online or via their mobile devices.   And slowly but surely, sports bettors in Illinois can now bet on in-state schools.  They must register in person to do so. The change might be helping as Illinois reported record gambling numbers in October 2022.

Wagering at Illinois sportsbooks slipped to less than $700 million last February, the lowest monthly handle since September 2021   February, of course, contained the most wagered event in the U.S., the Super Bowl.

“The Super Bowl can’t completely replace the volume of wagers from a full month of NFL football,” said Joe Boozell, lead analyst for PlayIllinois.com. “Importantly, though, sportsbooks continued to show strong year-over-year growth, and that momentum almost certainly accelerated in March, which brought lighter registration requirements and the NCAA Tournament.”

Fast forward, October 2022 rocked!

This marked the first time sports betting in the state surpassed the $1 billion mark.

Handle also increased 24% from September’s handle of about $832 million.

Dave Briggs with PlayIllinois.com said he doesn’t see a slowdown anytime soon.

“I wouldn’t expect so, and then you get into the NFL playoffs, then you get into the Super Bowl, then into March Madness, so I don’t know if it will stay at a billion dollars a month for every month, but certainly it’s going to be right up there,” Briggs said. 

The feat is impressive.

Illinois became only thefourth state in U.S. history to produce a billion-dollar monthly handle from sports wagers, the others being Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Nevada only allows in-person registrations while both New York and New Jersey do not allow betting on in-state schools or games that feature them.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com