Illinois

Illinois Sportsbooks Collect Nearly $100 Million In March Revenue

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2024

Illinois Sportsbooks Collect Nearly 0 Million In March Revenue

The Illinois Gaming Board reported $99.4 million in adjusted gross sports betting revenue for March on Wednesday afternoon, as sportsbooks narrowly missed a nine-figure haul for the fifth time in state history.

Revenue was up only 2.3% compared to last March despite a 17.9% surge in traditional handle to $1.26 billion. The 7.9% hold this year was 1.2 percentage points lower, leaving operator winnings $580,000 shy of $100 million.

March’s handle was the fourth-highest in 47 months of wagering in the Land of Lincoln and came within $21.7 million of January’s total for third. The $3.62 billion in accepted bets for the first quarter of 2024 is up 20% from last year.

The state received $14.9 million in tax revenue, and the $47.7 million collected in the opening three months of 2024 is $8.5 million ahead of last year’s pace, as year-to-date revenue is up 21.6% from 2023.

Operator taxes are a point of discussion in Illinois after Gov. JB Pritzker called to more than double the rate to 35% in February for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1.

Had that rate been in effect for the first three months of 2024, the state would have received $111.4 million — an increase of $63.6 million. Pritzker’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget estimates an additional $200 million in tax revenue with the 35% rate in place.

Cook County received close to $1.1 million in tax revenue from a 2% levy placed on the $54.7 million in adjusted gross revenue generated within its borders, which includes Chicago.

The city itself collected $910 in taxes from its 2% levy placed on the $45,500 in revenue generated at the DraftKings at Wrigley Field, which began taking wagers in March.

Plenty of March Madness action

Running March #SportsBetting handle by state:
1 New York $1.85B
2 New Jersey $1.33B
3 ILLINOIS $1.26B
4 Ohio $809.3M
5 Penn. $800.7M
6 Nevada $785.3M
7 N.C. $659.3M
8 Mass. $654.9M
9 Virginia $635.6M
10 Colorado $593.1M#SportsBettingX #GamblingX
— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) May 15, 2024

The Illinois Gaming Board does not break out handle between NBA and college basketball, but total wagering on the sport totaled $633.7 million for March — an all-time monthly high and an increase of 23.4% from last year.

It did note that total wagering on college sports for the month, which would be overwhelmingly on basketball given the time of year, totaled $394.8 million. In-person college wagering totaled $16.2 million.

Operators claimed $26 million in revenue from all basketball bets placed, good for a 4.1% hold. That was the largest single source of revenue from a specific sport, while winnings from parlays and same-game parlays accounted for more than half the overall amount at $56.8 million. Illinois bettors wagered $349.7 million on multi-leg bets, resulting in a 16.2% win rate for the house.

Tennis was a distant second when it came to operator revenue at $5.1 million, as the house had a 6.6% hold on $76.6 million in handle. Soccer was the only other sport to produce more than $3 million in revenue, clearing that mark by $88,000 as handle totaled $43.7 million.

FanDuel tops in revenue; DraftKings leads in handle

Betting via the state’s eight sports betting apps accounted for 97% of the total handle at $1.23 billion.

FanDuel took top honors for revenue with $41.4 million, fashioning a 9.5% hold from $433.8 million in completed events handle. The $435.3 million in traditional handle was within $1.3 million of its all-time high set last December.

DraftKings also narrowly missed its top mark for wagers at $461.5 million, $2.4 million shy of its best total. It collected $32.8 million in winnings — the fourth consecutive month over $30 million — while attaining a 7.1% win rate.

BetRivers joined FanDuel as the only mobile book to top an 8% hold, landing at 8.1% in collecting $6.5 million in revenue from $79.8 million worth of bets placed.

The fourth through seventh spots for handle were separated by $9.7 million, with ESPN BET the best of the bunch at $62.7 million, followed by Caesars ($61.9 million), BetMGM ($60.4 million), and Fanatics Sportsbook ($52.3 million).

ESPN BET also took the No. 4 spot for revenue with $4.7 million, while Caesars rounded out the top five with just over $4 million. Fanatics pipped BetMGM for sixth by $419,000. Circa Sports set a record for revenue with $324,200 while posting an eight-digit handle for just the second time since launch with $11 million worth of wagers.

DraftKings at Wrigley draws college hoops fans

Bettors who had been waiting nearly a year to place bets at the DraftKings location adjacent to iconic Wrigley Field put a notable chunk of their action on basketball wagers, with almost $494,100 — nearly 70% of the total completed events handle — bet on pro and college basketball. That percentage eclipsed 90% when including the $151,400 in parlays.

Perhaps more impressively was that bettors came out nearly $14,000 ahead on their parlay bets in contrast to the 8.1% hold on basketball that netted DraftKings $40,100 in revenue.

DraftKings’ other retail sportsbook on the other side of the state — at Casino Queen near the Missouri border — enjoyed a solid March with $563,900 in winnings while crafting a 7.2% hold.

Rivers Casino paced all brick-and-mortar venues with $875,200 in revenue thanks to a 7.4% win rate from $11.8 million worth of bets. Argosy Casino in Alton grossed $592,700 in revenue while notching a 15.7% hold, with $397,300 eligible to be taxed.

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Illinois

Illinois High Court Rules on Pre- and Post-Shift Wage and Hour Exclusion

Published

11 hours ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Illinois High Court Rules on Pre- and Post-Shift Wage and Hour Exclusion

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Illinois that the state’s minimum wage law does not incorporate the federal Portal-to-Portal Act’s (PPA) exclusion for “preliminary or postliminary” employee activities could open the door to a wave of new wage-and-hour lawsuits by employees over time spent undergoing health or security screenings or other required activities before and after their shifts.

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Illinois

Kinston woman arrested in months-long fraud investigation in Illinois

Published

24 hours ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Kinston woman arrested in months-long fraud investigation in Illinois

KINSTON, N.C. (WITN) – A Kinston woman is facing charges in Illinois after police say she redirected thousands of dollars from dozens of people to her bank accounts.

Police in Goodfield, Illinois, launched an investigation in November after a woman reported that someone had redirected approximately $8,300 of her paychecks to unknown bank accounts.

Police learned through search warrants that the accounts contained additional deposits from more than 30 victims totaling around $39,000.

Laylah Blount was identified as the suspect during the investigation.

Goodfield police traveled to North Carolina on March 30th and served a search warrant at Blount’s house with Kinston police.

Officers found Blount at the home and seized several electronics.

The 19-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated identity theft, theft over $500 and fraudulent use of electronic transmissions.

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Illinois

Illinois woman leads NASA’s Mission Evaluation Room for Artemis II

Published

1 day ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

Illinois woman leads NASA’s Mission Evaluation Room for Artemis II

ILLINOIS – For the very first time, humanity is experiencing the far side of the Moon — a milestone reached Monday in NASA’s historic Artemis II mission.

The crewed Orion spacecraft is pushing new boundaries, made possible by the people supporting the mission from Earth.

Among them is an Illinois woman leading the team that is monitoring the spacecraft’s systems and ensuring its astronauts remain safe.

What we know:

Jennifer Madsen is playing a key role in the Artemis II mission from the Johnson Space Center in Houston — the heart of NASA’s spaceflight operations.

Inside the Mission Evaluation Room (MER), Madsen and her team serve as Orion’s life-support system — Earthside.

“It was definitely surreal to be here and see the launch, because myself and this whole team have been working for years designing and testing this spacecraft,” said Jennifer Madsen, lead of NASA’s Artemis II Orion Mission Evaluation Room.

During the 10-day mission, engineers are constantly analyzing the spacecraft’s in-flight systems and helping astronauts troubleshoot issues. It’s a job that doesn’t stop — from launch until splashdown.

“In the Mission Control Center, we have the Flight Control Room, where they’re sending communication back and forth with the spacecraft. In this room, our Orion engineers are watching all the data that’s coming from the spacecraft, trending to see if the vehicle is doing what we expect, talking with the Flight Control Team about things we want the spacecraft to do — or if the spacecraft is giving us a signature that we’re not expecting, doing some troubleshooting on that anomaly,” Madsen explained.

Dig deeper:

Madsen’s story begins in Illinois. She hails from the Quad Cities, where she attended Alleman High School in Rock Island. She then studied aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois before continuing her education in electrical engineering at the University of Houston — a path that prepared her to become the deputy manager for Orion’s Avionics, Power, and Software, and Mission Evaluation Room Lead.

“They’re going to be taking images, working with the scientists, examining the craters, looking at the different lighting conditions. And so, our team during that time is going to be having our eyes on the spacecraft while the crew has their eyes on the Moon,” Madsen said.

Just days before liftoff, Madsen visited the Adler Planetarium to discuss her role in the mission and answer questions from future scientists.

She says the most special part of this journey is taking humanity further than they’ve ever gone.

“That human portion of this mission is what’s really interesting, and it’s honestly where I think we’ve been learning the most about the spacecraft, because when we flew Artemis I, we did not have any people on it,” Madsen said. “The words that they’re bringing us, the pictures that they’ll be able to take is why we have this mission and we put humans on this spacecraft.”

What’s next:

Splashdown is scheduled for Friday, April 10. While the exact timing remains flexible, the spacecraft is projected to land in the Pacific Ocean around 7 p.m. Central Time.

You can track the progress of the Artemis II mission throughout its journey on NASA’s website.

The Source: The information in this article was reported by FOX Chicago’s Kasey Chronis.

IllinoisSpaceNews

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