Illinois Sports Wagering Act
The Illinois Sports Wagering Act was passed into law on June 28, 2019 with the first legal wager being placed on March 9, 2020 The Act allows for individuals 21 or older to place monetary wagers on live sporting events. In 2018, the United States Supreme Court held in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n that states may authorize and license sports gambling, finding that certain provisions of the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act were unconstitutional. This ruling opened the door for states like Illinois to allow legal sports betting to their citizens. Illinois allows wagers to be placed on many sports including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, boxing, MMA, and other, less mainstream events. After decades of illegal sports books being the primary avenue for bettors, Illinois passed the law with hopes to gain tax revenue from these black market sports books. In 2019, J.B. Pritzker explained his goals for the bill, stating “sports betting is different. This is a new market created by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. Every day we argue about who’s in and who’s out is money that goes to other states and to the black market.” Illinois was able to generate $200