The History of Gaming in Illinois
We love history here at Porter’s — hope you enjoy! Article by Tom Bostrom.
The year was 1919 —
Shoeless Joe Jackson was the best baseball player on the planet. The White Sox team of this era was seriously loaded and were heavy favorites to win the 1919 World Series. However, the White Sox, under owner Charles Comiskey, were heavily underpaid and disgruntled. When the infamous crime-boss Arnold Rothstein came up with the masterplan to fic the 1919 World Series against heavy underdogs the Cincinnati Reds, nearly half the team was interested in taking part. Heavy debate still exists as to which players knowingly threw the series, especially concerning the legendary Jackson who played tremendously. In the end 8 players were received life-long bans from the game of baseball, leading one downtrodden fan to famously implore his childhood hero, “say it ain’t so Joe, say it so.”
Now that you know where the best place to play video slots in the Quad Cities, we figured it was time to drop a little knowledge and share some fun stories about the history of gambling in Illinois. The state of Illinois is RICH with history. Whether it’s famous duels or the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates, the curse of the Goat and the subsequent breaking of the curse, Al Capone and the mafia lords of Chicago, Illinois has the juice. And one of the juiciest stories in American history revolves around gambling, Illinois, and America’s favorite past time.
Gambling has been part of the American landscape since the first European settlers crossed the Atlantic. Games of chance were extremely popular in the early British-American colonies and as Anglo-settlers stretched across the continent, gambling followed. Local and state lotteries were popular, as was horse racing and the betting surrounding the sport. As the populations of large cities like Chicago began to grow, gambling in many of the immigrant and working-class neighborhoods was seen as a major problem.
Porter’s gaming room is the best in the area!
In the 1840’s gambling riverboats first began to appear in the state of Illinois. A great way to escape stifling heat during warm months, floating casinos also allowed gamers to escape gambling regulations on land. In February of 1990, Illinois passed the Riverboat Gambling Act, making it the second state in America to officially legalize riverboat casinos. The first riverboat casino in the state was opened in Alton in 1991. Initially required to move along waterways while gambling, Illinois amended legislation in 1999, allowing riverboat casinos to be permanently docked and operational.
Illinois was the first state to ban smoking inside of casinos in 2008 and revenue immediately dropped by 20%. The reason behind this drastic loss in revenue was about logistics. Most of the casinos in Illinois are near borders, making it easy for smoking gamers to simply cross the state line and gamble in adjacent states that allowed smoking. Gambling profits increased in the neighboring states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri. In an effort to combat some of this loss, legislation was passed legalizing bar video poker and slot machines in 2009.
Have you been to Porter’s game room?
The Land of Lincoln became the first state in America to institute a state lottery system in 1974 and officially became the first state to allow the online purchasing of lottery tickets. In addition,
following the Supreme Court ruling of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act as unconstitutional, individual states were allowed make their own laws regarding sports betting.
In June of 2019, Senate Bill 690 was signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker, authorizing sports betting in the state of Illinois. The bill also allowed the construction of six new casinos, pending proper licensing. The first online and retail location of sports betting were opened by BetRivers in June of 2020 with more on the way.
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