Illinois College Sports Betting a GO
The legislation for Illinois college sports betting has most recently taken a great opportunity to continue to expand the options for bettors in the state. In the near future, bettors should be able to place bets for in-state teams, as Amendment 2 to House Bill 3136 received a pass in the Illinois General Assembly and the Senate.
While it has been legal to place bets online in Illinois for some time, there was no option to bet on games involving in-state college teams. This will likely change in the near future, as the most recent amendment to the current law has already passed a very important stage.
How Illinois College Sports Betting Got Here
On June 28, 2019, Governor J.B Pritzker signed the current bill to make controlled sports betting a legal activity in Illinois for the first time. Later, on March 9, 2020, the first wager in the state was placed at the Rivers Casino, with online registrations temporarily allowed due to COVID-19. Then, in April 2021, after a short period during the pandemic, the state’s in-person sportsbooks registration requirement returned, but this time, for good.
According to the new bill, the expiration date for the in-person registrations would be March 5 of next year. Before the bill was accepted, the registration was to be lifted only following a set period subsequent to the issuance of new online-only sportsbook licenses. Because those licenses could see delays into the summer, lawmakers have made an effort to introduce online registrations, regardless of the progress of the state’s online sports betting segment.
Home Teams Restriction
Nothing is better than seeing your home team win and trusting your sports knowledge by placing a bet on it. For Illinois residents, this has not been available yet. However, it is soon to be changed, thanks to a new step forward in the development of the most recent sports betting history in the state.
In an effort to protect college athletes that might be subject to virtual harassment and possible attacks online, the state has shown full support of a flexible, but tightly-controlled, environment. But, at the same time, it wants to keep the college sports scene clean of any abusive behaviors against athletes.
For this reason, with the most recent update and the upcoming changes for in-state college sports betting, the restriction will now be modified to allow bets only on the final outcome of a college sports content, instead of a player-specific performance. This, along with many other additions to the current law, is great news that Illinois sports betting fans have been waiting for.
With the most recent sports betting expansion from 2019, the state of Illinois has also put its trust in the responsible gaming philosophy and decided to move forward along with states like Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and others.
