On February 19th, State Representatives Bob Rita and Jonathon Carroll filed HB3142 with the Illinois General Assembly. This proposal would pave the way for online casinos in Illinois. Importantly for Hawthorne Casino, the bill provides “a casino or racetrack to offer Internet gaming or contract with a platform to offer Internet gaming”. This could be a breakthrough for Illinois online poker.
When reading legislation, there is always a bunch of the expected legal mumbo jumbo so let’s get to the highlights:
- Internet gaming, including online poker, would be allowed.
- In-person account creation would be required for the first 6 months of operation. After 6 months, online account creation will be allowed.
- Bettors must be physically located “in state” when making wagers. (More to come on this in the future?)
- Funding and withdrawals will be facilitated either online or in-person.
- Players can link accounts from other legal jurisdictions to their Illinois account.
And most importantly……
6. Providers may enter into reciprocal agreements with other jurisdictions to provide SHARED LIQUIDITY for internet games INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO POKER!!!!!
This comes as great news for Chicago Casino and Illinois online poker players. We appreciate the ability to join the rest of the enlightened world playing online.
This is very important and exciting news. Hopefully more to come!
