The Illinois Senate has approved a bill to allow online gaming and daily fantasy sports in the state.
Though the bill has yet to be considered in the state’s Assembly—which is out of session until June 8—the 42-to-10 vote came as a surprise to analysts as Illinois has not voted on an online gaming bill before.
The bill was initially proposed for DFS sites, but according to a report in the Chicago Tribune, online gaming was added to gain support from the state’s land-based casino operators. According to the report, casino operators in the state see DFS sites as competition.
The bill, titled the Internet Gaming Act would create a Division of Internet Gaming within the Illinois Gaming Board. The bill allows for both online poker and casino games.
According to a report at CalvinAyre.com, online licenses would be available only to the state’s licensed casino and horseracing operators. Successful applicants would pay $10 million as a deposit against future tax obligations. The tax on gross gaming revenue would be set at $15 percent, but operators will only be taxed at 10 percent on their $100m of annual revenue, and 15 percent on revenue above $100m for the first five years the bill is in place.
The bill also creates the Fantasy Sports Contest Act. DFS operators would pay 5 percent on the first $1 million of revenue, 7.5 percent on revenue between $1 million and $3 million, 10 percent on revenue between $3 million and $8 million and 15 percent of revenue over $8 million, the report said.
DFS license application fees would be based on revenue with operators earning over $10 million per year paying $25,000.
