Bookies beware: Illinois gets ready to go all-in on sports betting
Sports gambling, a multibillion-dollar industry that mostly relies on the black market, may soon go legit in Illinois.
Backed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a host of gambling interests, Illinois is looking to join New Jersey, Pennsylvania and a growing number of states to legalize sports betting, turning the widely practiced but illicit activity into a bounteous source of tax revenue.
Don't lose your bookie's number just yet, however. To get it done, lawmakers and businesses face a series of hurdles.
Illinois legislators, for one, need to figure out where sports betting should take place, how much to tax bettors and whether to limit it to bricks-and-mortar locations or allow more lucrative online betting as well.
No less challenging will be determining who gets a
