The new law authorizes sports wagering licenses at up to seven sports facilities with a capacity over 17,000GETTY IMAGES
A lawyer for the White Sox, Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks wrote to Illinois state regulators and told them that they "need to tighten rules to fend off 'faux' competitors if Chicago's professional sports teams are expected to fork over a whopping" $10M apiece for "licenses to open sportsbooks at or near their stadiums," according to Mitchell Armentrout of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. The teams "want rules to keep casino-tied sports wagering operations and Illinois Lottery parlay betting kiosks out of their territory once the industry finally launches." Illinois' new gambling expansion law "authorizes sports wagering licenses not only for casinos, racetracks and off-track betting parlors, but also for up to seven sports facilities with a capacity of 17,000 or more." Illinois-base attorney Donna More wrote that with a $10M "price tag for each sports wagering license on top of a $250,000 application fee, each team should get total control over its five-block-radius domain." That means "barring from each team's designated domain the lottery sports-betting terminals that were also included as a pilot program under the gambling expansion, unless they get team approval." More wrote it also means casinos, off track betting and other competing sports-betting operators "should be kept from advertising or horning in with 'a faux sports wagering facility' within the five-block-radius zone, including by offering online betting without team approval." Regulators "have not set a timeline for sports betting to launch in Illinois" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 10/3).
