Nearly $10 billion was bet through legal Illinois sportsbooks in 2022. Numbers for December were released today by the Illinois Gaming Board.
For the third straight month, Illinois sports betting handle topped $1 billion. More than $1.029 billion was bet through IL sportsbooks in December. That’s down marginally from a record $1.03 billion in November and about equal with October when Illinois sports betting handle topped $1 billion for the first time.
Illinois is just the fourth state to post three consecutive months of billion-dollar handle. The others are New York, New Jersey and Nevada.
For the year, Illinois sports betting revenue was exactly $9,751,301,251.
Illinois ranked third in sports betting handle in 2022 behind New York (over $16.2 billion) and New Jersey (just shy of $11 billion).
For December only, Illinois was also third in handle behind New York (over $1.6 billion) and New Jersey (nearly $1.06 billion).
The record handle in Illinois was driven most by betting on the NFL, NBA, World Cup and NHL.
Illinois sports betting handle up 82% since August
Though December IL sportsbook handle was about the same as both November and October, it was up 24% from the September total bet of more than $831.8 million and 82% from the August figure of $565 million.
The growth is mostly attributable to a change in legislation.
In March of 2022, legislation came into effect allowing Illinois residents to sign-up online for sportsbooks, rather than doing so at one of the state’s land-based casinos. The decision to allow residents to register online with one of the state’s seven legal sportsbooks has been a boon to the industry.
IL sportsbook revenue ranked second in US in 2022
In terms of gross gaming revenue, Illinois ranked second in the US in 2022 with more than $806 million.
New York was tops in the US in sports betting revenue with nearly $1.4 billion. New Jersey was just behind Illinois in third with almost $763 million.
In December alone, the Prairie State was third in the United States with nearly $81.4 million in sports betting revenue. That amount is behind New Jersey’s revenue of $87.7 million. New York led the nation in revenue in December with nearly $143 million.
Illinois sports betting revenue – December 2022
| Licensee | Online Brand(s) | Handle | Revenue | Hold | Taxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairmount Park | FanDuel | $350,723,415 | $37,370,170 | 10.7% | $6,002,599 |
| Casino Queen East St. Louis | DraftKings | $311,384,471 | $21,900,309 | 7% | $3,590,337 |
| Rivers Des Plaines | BetRivers | $108,973,694 | $8,097,812 | 7.4% | $1,337,461 |
| Hawthorne | PointsBet | $81,957,678 | $3,438,552 | 4.2% | $581,018 |
| Par-A-Dice | BetMGM | $59,824,979 | $4,632,661 | 7.7% | $708,263 |
| Grand Victoria | Caesars | $57,615,744 | $2,758,015 | 4.8% | $426,044 |
| Hollywood Aurora | Barstool | $50,470,038 | $2,680,710 | 5.3% | $477,586 |
| Argosy | $6,106,634 | $346,429 | 5.7% | $41,176 | |
| Hollywood Joliet | $1,413,603 | $182,812 | 12.9% | $21,666 | |
| Total | $1,028,471,257 | $81,407,470 | 7.9% | $13,186,151 |
Illinois sports betting surpasses Pennsylvania lifetime
With more sportsbooks coming soon to Illinois, the future is bright for the industry.
In November, the Prairie State surpassed Pennsylvania in sports betting revenue and is close to passing PA in handle.
Lifetime sports betting revenue ranking (through December 2022):
- New Jersey — nearly $2.37 billion
- Nevada — nearly $1.7 billion
- Illinois — nearly $1.5 billion
- Pennsylvania — nearly $1.5 billion
- New York — $1.41 billion
Lifetime sports betting handle:
- New Jersey — over $33.7 billion
- Nevada — over $29.5 billion
- Pennsylvania — over nearly $18.9 billion
- Illinois — $18.7 billion
- New York — over $16.6 billion
Illinois nearly $233 million in tax revenue from sports betting
In 2022, sports betting in Illinois has produced total tax revenue of nearly $128 million. Lifetime, Illinois sports betting has generated almost $233 million in tax revenue since sports betting launched in the state in June 2019.
In December, IL sportsbooks generated over $13 million for state and local coffers. In November, sportsbooks in Illinois generated over $15.5 million in taxes.
Illinois had an effective sportsbook tax rate of 16.2% in December.
Meanwhile, the hold in Illinois was 8.3% in 2022, 7.9% in December and has been 7.9% lifetime.
Sports betting exceeded $190 billion in lifetime handle nationwide
Lifetime, the 26 states that have legal sports betting have produced combined handle of over $190 billion through December. Revenue is nearly $15 billion and total tax revenue is nearly $2.5 billion.
In 2022 alone, total handle was more than $93 billion. Total revenue in 2022 was close to $8 billion. Combined tax revenue was more than $1.5 billion for the year.
