DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - New data from the Illinois Gaming Board shows sports betting in Illinois is down significantly. In September of last year, the state implemented a $0.25 tax on the first 20 million wagers at each sportsbook. After that, the tax increases to $0.50 per wager.
In response, the largest sportsbooks in the state, FanDuel and DraftKings, rolled out a flat $0.50 fee on customers, passing the tax to its players.
Comparing September 2024 to September 2025, there were five million fewer wagers placed in Illinois, which is a 15% decrease.
Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance, said he was surprised by that decrease.
"Mostly because this is the only jurisdiction across all 30 states with online sports betting where this is actually happening," Maloney said.
Maloney said it's very unlikely that many players stopped betting altogether. The worry is that those bets are still being placed, only now through illegal websites and bookies.
"Any bettor with any level of sophistication is really paying attention to their costs, right?" Maloney said. "So, when you have the ability to have multiple competitive entrants in the legal regulated marketplace and then a myriad number of options in illegal or unregulated sites, you're going to go for that best price."
When you bet using an illegal service, you have no protections, which is one of the reasons sports gambling was legalized in the first place.
"It was to protect consumers that were already doing this illegally," Maloney said. "Bring them into transparent marketplaces where there are consumer protections, where there's recourse. If you don't get paid out your winnings, you have the opportunity to call a regulator, you have the opportunity to call an attorney general."
The other reason was to generate more tax revenue for the state, something Maloney felt Illinois lawmakers should consider.
"Once the consumers flee this market, there's no additional tax revenue to go to these important priorities that the state is clearly working on," he said.
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