State gambling regulators seek public comment on sports betting rules

Before Illinoisans can start putting dollars down on sports contests, state regulators want their two cents on how to roll out the newly legitimized world of sports betting.

The Illinois Gaming Board on Tuesday opened a month-long public comment period seeking input from the sports-wagering industry and any “other stakeholders,” including the regular Joes and Janes who still are jonesing for sportsbooks to launch two months and counting since Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a sweeping gambling expansion into law.

That legislation laid out a tax structure for sports betting — and it also authorized six new casinos, thousands more video gambling machines and racetrack casino games, all of which fall under the purview of the 150-employee gaming board.

But the agency still has to draft thousands of rules about license applications and other procedures before the expansion goes live.

The board wants to hear proposed rules and any “other response regarding rulemaking” for sports betting, submitted via email.

“This public comment period is an important step in a process to ethically and expeditiously establish a regulatory framework to allow sports wagering in Illinois,” gaming board administrator Marcus Fruchter said in a statement. “In order to make the process of rule creation as transparent and independent as possible, it is important that the public and various stakeholders have an equal opportunity to submit comments about the Sports Wagering Act contained in P.A 101-0031.”

After that act became law June 28, statehouse sponsors suggested sportsbooks could be up and running in time for the NFL season, or by the Super Bowl at the latest.

The comment period closes Sept. 27 — during the Week 4 slate of NFL games.

Submissions then will be posted to the gaming board website “in a timely manner,” the agency said.

Sports betting launched in the Midwest with Iowa’s casinos Aug. 15, and it’s poised to go live at a handful of Indiana casinos Sept. 1. Lawmakers in those states legalized sports betting almost two months before Illinois did.

Fruchter hasn’t put a timeline on the rollout, previously saying the agency has to work “deliberately and not rush into something that either doesn’t work or has problems or any number of other concerns.”

Comments can be emailed to igb.sportsrulecomments@igb.illinois.gov.