•June 6, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

State governments are salivating now that the US Supreme Court has cleared the way for them to authorize sports gambling, a legal (Nevada only right now) and illegal industry that experts say dwarfs the lotteries and casinos in dollars wagered.

But don’t count on any future state tax revenues from sports betting to make a dent in our state’s huge budget deficit.

Illinois has seven forms of legal gambling, in order of tax revenue to the state: the lottery, video gambling, casinos, horse racing, bingo, pull-tab and jar games.

State revenue from gambling has jumped from $118 million in 1975, when the state-run lottery was created, to $1.3 billion ($567 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) this past year.

The $2.8 billion spent on Illinois lottery tickets this past year amounts to about $600 for each of our state’s five million households.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.