Despite being in operation since March of 2020, legal sportsbooks in Illinois broke $1 billion in total dollars accepted on sports betting for the first time in October of this year.
The new all-time high monthly sports betting handle collection total in IL is now set at an impressive $1,029,560,184.
This places Illinois in elite company on the month-by-month sports betting revenue reports, as the only other two states to clear a billion in sportsbook handle are New Jersey and Nevada. That means IL is the first PASPA-impacted state to top $1 billion.
The previous high for sports betting handle collections in IL was set in March of this year at $971,278,389. Many other regions also reported high totals for March, and that’s largely due to betting on college basketball and March Madness odds.
So, what’s the deal for October? It couldn’t have been simply due to sports betting in Chicago on their major pro teams.
There was no betting on the Chicago Cubs, as they didn’t make it to the MLB Playoffs.
Sure, there were certainly a decent amount of NFL bets made on the Chicago Bears, but there’s no reason for a significant uptick over the last two seasons.
UFC 280 also went down in October, where Islam Makhachev won the Lightweight Championship by beating Charles Oliveira with a rear submission in the 2nd round.
Illinois was able to amass these totals with the same number of operational domestic sportsbooks as prior months – 11 retail brick-and-mortar venues and 7 online/mobile sports betting apps.
October sports betting revenue for IL has also set a new record high with $102,088,548. This is the first time that totals have gone beyond $100 million.
The previous high for sports betting revenue intake in the Prairie State was $79,327,385 collected in November 2021, but that number was nearly eclipsed just last month when IL took in $78,416,646.
Thankfully, these sports betting revenue collections also resulted in record numbers for tax dollars as well. The new number to beat that was set in October is $15,313,282, besting the previous high of $11,899,108 for November 2021.
Handle and revenue totals don’t always equate to similar ratios on the tax totals, as those numbers depend on the amount of winning and losing bets that were accepted at domestic sportsbooks during that calendar month.
“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.”
Dave Briggs – PlayIllinois
Local gambling interests aren’t attributing the increase in business to anything other than the NFL, NBA, NHL, and NCAA Football being in season.
If that’s the case, then Illinois is forecasting itself as a repeat member of the billion-dollar club, but the real test will be next January when collections are routinely the highest around the country.
Source – WTVO
