Illinois casinos snag sports betting licenses, still don’t know when they’ll reopen

Illinois casinos are still in the dark as to when the state might let them reopen to the public but their online sports betting plans are getting a little clearer.

On Thursday, the Illinois Gaming Board announced that they still had no clue as to when the state’s 10 casinos might warrant inclusion in the governor’s Restore Illinois post-pandemic economic reboot. The casinos were ordered closed on March 16 in order to minimize further spread of COVID-19.

The casinos did get new guidelines they’ll need to have in place before regulators will clear them to reopen. Most of the protocols mirror that of Nevada and other states, including a 50% capacity constraint. Still that’s preferable to the rules applied to Detroit’s three casinos, which learned this week that they’ll be limited to just 15% of their normal capacity when they reopen.

Two casinos – Rivers Des Plaines and the Argosy Casino Alton – were able to launch their retail sportsbooks just one week before the casinos were shut. On Thursday, those two casinos plus five more – Grand Casino Victoria (Elgin), Hollywood Casino Aurora, Hollywood Casino Joliet, Par-A-Dice (East Peoria) and Casino Queen (East St. Louis) – received their ‘master licenses,’ netting the cash-strapped state $40m in immediate license fee payments.