Illinois students and schoolrooms receive around US$600 million per year in Lottery revenue - about 9.6% of the state's annual contribution to K-12 education. Lottery profits are deposited into the state's Common School Fund supporting kindergarten through 12th grade public education. Last year, with sales of nearly US$2 billion, a record amount of over US$670 billion was generated by the state lottery for schools. Advertising campaigns and new games were credited with the increase.

The total collected in taxation of gambling in Illinois for the year ended 1 July was US$1.37 billion, an eighth year of growth. Two contenders for Governor see gambling as a means of making more money for the state but expansion in the industry could still meet strong opposition, particularly as there is no consensus on the means to arrive at the objective. Selling or leasing the state lottery, a mega casino for Chicago, and increasing tables and gaming machines on the riverboats are some of the options.

At present each riverboat licence holder is permitted to operate 1200 gaming positions and an admission tax is charged, payable by the operators. This ranges from US$3 to US$5, depending on the annual number of visitors to the casino. A wagering tax is also levied; a graduated tax rate based on the annual adjusted gross receipts (AGR) of the riverboat operations. Tokens, chips or electronic cards are used for wagering as the Riverboat Gambling Act prohibits the use of cash.

Until last year the Illinois tax rate was the highest in the USA. The top 70% rate discouraged casinos from generating more money and the top rate was reduced to 50% to give impetus to staffing levels and marketing budgets. Gross revenue has already increased by nearly 7% and admissions by 5% this year. The casino industry is pushing for more gaming machines on the riverboats and, as Illinois needs a large injection of new revenue for next year’s budget, they may get lucky. (E-10.05.06)

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