{"id":371,"date":"2025-08-28T17:17:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=371"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:09:06","slug":"sba-rips-illinois-tax-hike-calls-it-catalyst-for-black-market-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/sba-rips-illinois-tax-hike-calls-it-catalyst-for-black-market-betting\/","title":{"rendered":"SBA Rips Illinois Tax Hike, Calls It Catalyst for Black Market Betting"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) chides Illinois over latest sports betting tax hike<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Says it will chase smaller bettors to unregulated bookmakers<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), a trade group representing US sportsbook operators, lambasted Illinois over its recent sports wagering tax increase, saying the new per-bet levy on gaming companies will drive smaller bettors to unregulated markets.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_311629\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-311629\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-311629 size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Illinois sport betting tax Pritzker\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1708550422691-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). The Sports Betting Alliance of Illinois says the state&#8217;s sports wagering tax increase could chase bettors to the black market. (Image: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The SBA\u2019s Illinois chapter issued a statement Thursday in which it ripped the state for charging operators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-again-hikes-sports-betting-taxes-draftkings-fanduel-to-bear-brunt\/\">25 cents per bet on the first 20 million bets<\/a> booked, with that figure doubling to 50 cents for every bet after 20 million \u2013 a move the organization believes will adversely affect smaller bettors.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>Data shows the state\u2019s new per-wager tax will have the most impact on recreational bettors in Illinois who place small-dollar wagers, with more than half of bets placed in Illinois at $5 or less,\u201d said the SBA of Illinois in the press release. \u201cThe tax will drive more Illinois residents to the illegal and predatory sports betting market that is rapidly expanding nationwide \u2013 and a growing concern of the state\u2019s top consumer advocates: <a href=\"https:\/\/illinoisattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/story\/attorney-general-raoul-urges-us-department-of-justice-to-assist-in-addressing-illegal-offshore-gaming-operations\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"0\">the Illinois Attorney General<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/article\/investigations\/32212-bbb-investigation-consumers-confused-and-upset-amid-hundreds-of-unlicensed-and-unverified-online-casinos-and-sportsbooks\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"1\">Better Business Bureau<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On a national level, SBA\u2019s members <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sports-betting-alliance-fields-fifth-member-bet365\/\">are Bet365<\/a>, BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel.<\/p>\n<h2>SBA Fires Football Season Warning Shot in Illinois<\/h2>\n<p>With the 2025 football season commencing in earnest tonight, the Illinois tax environment is amplified because football is the most wagered-on sport in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Sportsbook operators in the state responded to the recent tax increase, the state\u2019s second in a year, by either assessing per-bet fees or implementing minimum bet sizes. Either way, that could chase bettors to the black markets, says the Illinois SBA.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>A growing number of companies begin to pass the Illinois per-wager sports betting tax onto customers, the risks of the flourishing illegal online gaming market will rise,\u201d says the organization.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier this week, Caesars Sportsbook joined DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel in assessing per-bet fees in Illinois. BetMGM, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-espn-bet-move-to-minimums-on-illinois-sports-bets\/\">Circa Sports, ESPN Bet<\/a>, Hard Rock Bet, and Rush Street Interactive are among the operators requiring minimum though small bet sizes in the state.<\/p>\n<h2>SBA Has Endured Criticism, Too<\/h2>\n<p>In sports betting circles, operators implementing transaction fees have been criticized, as has the SBA, on the basis that the organization probably should have seen the latest Illinois tax increase coming because the state moved to a progressive sports wagering tax scheme last year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-ceo-on-illinois-tax-hike-crazy-how-it-all-went-down\/\">Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker<\/a> has signed off on more than 50 tax increases since taking office in January 2019, so the state\u2019s efforts to extract more money from the gaming industry aren\u2019t surprising. It still doesn\u2019t sit well with the SBA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cCoupled with Illinois\u2019 2024 graduated tax, the state\u2019s per-wager tax is making the taxes paid by legal sports betting customers the highest in the country,\u201d according to the statement. \u201cUnregulated, offshore operators offer cheaper sports betting alternatives for consumers, without any consumer protections &#8212; including age verification &#8212; and without any oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sba-rips-illinois-tax-hike-calls-it-catalyst-for-black-market-betting\/\">SBA Rips Illinois Tax Hike, Calls It Catalyst for Black Market Betting<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) chides Illinois over latest sports betting tax hike Says it will chase smaller bettors to unregulated bookmakers The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), a trade group representing US sportsbook operators, lambasted Illinois over its recent sports wagering tax increase, saying the new per-bet levy on gaming companies will drive smaller bettors to unregulated markets. Illinois Gov. J.B. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}