• Casinos With 18 Gambling Age
• Gambling Age In Illinois

You must be 21 years of age to enter the gambling areas of an Illinois casino. The Riverboat Gambling Act requires that all casino wagering must use tokens, chips or electronic cards. Casino gambling in Illinois is permitted and done on riverboat casinos. These casinos are permitted to offer a variety of games to IL players who are at least 21 years of age: Jumer's Casino & Hotel. Casino gambling in Illinois is permitted and done on riverboat casinos. These casinos are permitted to offer a variety of games to IL players who are at least 21 years of age: Jumer's Casino & Hotel. Introduction to Illinois Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019. Illinois slot machine casino gambling consists of ten riverboat casinos, the second U.S. State to offer them, as well as video gaming terminals (VLTs) in small businesses approved by local governments. Illinois’ riverboat casinos have both minimum and maximum payout limits and monthly return statistics publicly available.

Illinois has become one of the most pro-gambling states in the country, and following the repeal of the federal law that had prohibited states from legalizing sports betting, lawmakers got to work and began the process that would allow them to present a sports betting bill before the state legislature.

In addition to the status of sports betting in Illinois, we want to provide you with information on the current sports betting laws in the state and where adults who are over the age of 18 can wager at online sportsbooks in the Land of Lincoln.

Top-Rated Online Sportsbooks For 18+ Illinois Bettors

Can you bet on sports at age 18 in Illinois?

Currently, Illinois residents and visitors can wager at domestic sportsbooks or via mobile betting apps. Domestic sports betting were legalized in 2019 and launched in 2020, However, these sports betting avenues in IL are limited to gamblers that are 21 years of age or older. 18+ sports bettors can place a wager with an international betting site because there is no law prohibiting the act as long as it is legally licensed and located offshore, such as the sites found on this page.

Is it legal to bet at 18+ online sportsbooks in Illinois?

No, domestic sports betting options are only available to those that are over 21 years old. It is only legal to bet on sports online at the age of 18 in Illinois if you wager at licensed offshore online sportsbooks operating online. Illinois law does not apply to jurisdictions other than its own, and 18 and over online sportsbooks are not allowed to operate inside state lines at this present time.

Are sports betting sites safe for Illinois residents?

If you choose any of the sports betting sites that we’ve vetted and approved, then there is no doubt that both your personal and financial data is safe and secure. The Internet is a dangerous place and scammers lurk around every corner every single day, which is why we want to provide the sites where you can safely and legally bet on sports if your 18 and up in Illinois.

What changes to federal law have impacted Illinois sports betting?

Illinois lawmakers prepared for the eventual repeal of PASPA by drafting and discussing bills as early as January 2018. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the federal law, sports betting states are free to legalize sports betting operators within their jurisdiction.

18+ State-Licensed Sportsbooks in Illinois

At this time, there are is only one state-licensed sportsbook located anywhere in the state of Illinois that allows residents and visitors to place wagers on sports, and it is limited to 21+ gamblers. Domestic sports betting is expected to expand, but it has been a slow crawl thus far.

Illinois College and Professional Sports Teams

Illinois is home to numerous college and pro teams that bettors from the state and around the country will immediately recognize at the online sportsbooks. Below you’ll find a complete list of all of the colleges with at least one team competing in NCAA Division I and all of the franchises with teams in a major professional sports league, which are all located in Chicago, Illinois.

NCAA Division I Teams:

• Bradley Bears: Missouri Valley (Peoria)
• Chicago State Cougars: WAC (Chicago)
• DePaul Blue Demons: Big East (Chicago)
• Eastern Illinois Panthers: Ohio Valley (Charleston)
• Illinois Fighting Illini: Big Ten (Urbana-Champaign)
• Illinois State Redbirds: Missouri Valley (Normal)
• Loyola Ramblers: Missouri Valley (Chicago)
• Northern Illinois Huskies: MAC (DeKalb)
• Northwestern Wildcats: Big Ten (Evanston)
• Southern Illinois Salukis: Missouri Valley (Carbondale)
• SIUE Cougars: Ohio Valley (Edwardsville)
• UIC Flames: Horizon (Chicago)
• Western Illinois Leathernecks: Summit (Macomb)

Major Professional Sports Teams:

*All the Illinois pro teams are located in Chicago

• Chicago Bears: NFL
• Chicago Blackhawks: NHL
• Chicago Bulls: NBA
• Chicago Cubs: MLB
• Chicago Fire: MLS
• Chicago Sky: WNBA
• Chicago White Sox: MLB

Legal Minimum Gambling Age in Illinois

The legal minimum gambling age requirement in Illinois is 21 years old to play at the slot machines, table games, sportsbooks, and in poker rooms at land-based riverboat casinos located throughout the state.

Other Forms of Legal 18+ Gambling in Illinois

If you are at least 18 years of age and are located anywhere in Illinois, then you can legally gamble on bingo, lottery, dog and horse racing, and in the form of pari-mutuel wagering.

Additionally, the online sportsbooks we recommend also allow Illinois players to play at their online casinos and poker rooms at age 18 but since the minimum age requirement of Illinois is 21 years old, we recommend following the law of your state, even though there has never been anyone charged with unlawfully gambling online at the age of 18.

Additional Resources

If you or someone you know lives in Illinois and is currently having difficulty or is possibly suffering from problem gambling, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Illinois Council on Problem Gambling for immediate help.

Illinois is in the process of changing the laws surrounding gambling in the state, both on and offline.

While online casinos are still deemed illegal in the state, online sportsbooks have just started operating on mobile and desktop devices. If online sports betting does well for the state'seconomy, there is huge potential to expand online gambling in IL.

There are different ways you can gamble in the state offline, including racetracks and river casino boats.

The new bill that was introduced in 2019 permitted land-based casinos to start operating in specific areas in IL, however, none have been able to open their doors just yet. This is due to thedelay caused by the Illinois Gaming Board who has yet to give a response to the riverboats that have applied for the license.

The vetting process has now taken a year, with the IGB expected to make a decision in the next few weeks. There are currently nine casino applicants.

Read more about the gambling laws in IL, the current status of land-based casinos, and when you can expect to be playing at an IL online casino, in our guide below.

Illinois Online Casinos

Although Illinois has a long tradition with some great riverboat casinos and a long history with gambling, it has not legalized online casinos just yet. There have been discussions oflegalizing online casinos, but it has not yet been approved by the senate.

A bill that was introduced in 2019 did legalize online sports betting and saw FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetRivers launch online sportsbooks in the state. It also allowed riverboat casinosto start applying for licenses to operate on land. But we'll get into that later.

For now, if you want to play at an online casino, you'll need to take a trip up to nearby Michigan.

But, you can still register with a legal online casino while you're in Illinois. That means you can get the casino's bonus offers or deposit, and then play whenever you're in stateswhere it's legal.

Land-Based Casinos in Illinois

Unlike Mississippi casinos, not all of the casinos in Illinois are open 24 hours, and Illinois casino laws limit the number of gaming licenses to 10. Up until2019, all casinos in IL had to operate as a riverboat casino.

Now, riverboat casinos are in the process of purchasing licenses to be able to operate on land.

There are five casinos in Illinois near Chicago, two casinos towards the center of the state, and three casinos in southern Illinois.

See our Chicago casinos section for more details on the five properties, as well as details on some casinos in Indiana that are within a short drive of Chicago.

All casinos in Illinois are non-smoking and, unless otherwise noted, all offer slots, video poker, blackjack, craps, roulette, and three-card poker.

Some Illinois casinos also offer: let it ride, baccarat, mini-baccarat, poker, Ultimate Texas hold 'em, Caribbean stud poker, Mississippi stud, pai gow poker, and four card poker.

The payback percentages on electronic gaming machines at all Illinois casinos are released as a matter of public record. Just click here to see a list of slot machine payback statistics for all Illinois casinos.

Types of Casinos in Illinois

There are two types of casino in IL; riverboats and pari-mutuel. While riverboat casinos are in the middle of a lengthy process trying to obtain a license to operate as a land-basedcasino, pari-mutuel betting has started to fade into the background.

There have been proposals on bringing slot games into the racetracks, however, have continuously been turned down.

Riverboat Casinos

All of the casinos in Illinois are riverboat casinos. Illinois was the second state to legalize riverboat gambling and the boats began operating in September 1991 with the launching of thefirst boat: the Alton Belle.

Seven of the riverboat casinos in Illinois are either on boats or on docked barges. These Illinois casinos remain dockside and do not cruise. The other three casinos: Rivers in DesPlaines, Jumer's in Rock Island, and the Casino Queen in East. St. Louis, are all land-based casinos.

Interestingly, however, they all qualify as being riverboat casinos because they are all built over a shallow pit filled with a few inches of water.

Pari-mutuel Casinos

Horse racing has been extremely popular in IL, especially in the 1930s to 80s. Unfortunately, the industry doesn't have nearly as close to as big of a turnout at the tracks today.

Still, there are three major horse tracks in Illinois:

• Fairmount Park - Collinsville
• Arlington Park - Arlington Heights
• Hawthorne Race Course - Cicero

All three tracks offer thoroughbred racing and stream every race to viewers across the United States.

Dog racing is illegal in the state of Illinois.

List of Land-Based Casinos in Illinois

Ameristar East Chicago

• 777 Aldis Ave, East Chicago, IN 46312
• 1 (219) 378-3000
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, Spanish 21, Baccarat, Mini-Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride, Mississippi Stud, Poker

Argosy Casino Alton

• 1 Piasa St, Alton, IL 62002
• 1 (618) 474-7500
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Three-Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold 'em

Casinos With 18 Gambling Age

Blue Chip Casino & Hotel

• 777 Blue Chip Dr, Michigan City, IN 46360
• 1 (219) 879-7711
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, Three Card Poker, Mississippi Stud, Ultimate Texas Hold 'em, Poker

Casino Queen

• 200 S Front St, East St Louis, IL 62201
• 1 (618) 874-5000
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em

Grand Victoria Casino Elgin

• 250 S Grove Ave, Elgin, IL 60120
• 1 (847) 468-7000
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Poker, Three-Card Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Poker

Harrah's Joliet

• 151 N Joliet St, Joliet, IL 60432
• 1 (815) 740-7800
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Three Card Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, Mississippi Stud, Poker

Harrah's Metropolis

• 100 E Front St, Metropolis, IL 62960
• 1 (618) 524-2628
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Three-Card Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Let It Ride, Mississippi Stud

Gambling Age In Illinois

Hollywood Casino Aurora

• 1 W New York St, Aurora, IL 60506
• 1 (630) 801-7000
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Three-Card Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Mississippi Stud, Poker

Hollywood Casino Joliet

• 777 Hollywood Blvd, Joliet, IL 60436
• 1 (815) 744-9400
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Poker, Three-Card Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Mississippi Stud

Horseshoe Casino Hammond

• 777 Casino Center Dr, Hammond, IN 46320
• 1 (219) 473-7000
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Three Card Poker, Let it Ride, Poker, Big Six Wheel, Pai Gow, Baccarat, Mississippis Stud

Jumer's Casino & Hotel

• 777 Jumer Dr, Rock Island, IL 61201, United States
• 1 (309) 756-4600
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Three-Card Poker, Mississippi Stud, Poker

Majestic Star Casino & Hotel

• 1 Buffington Harbor Dr, Gary, IN 46406
• 1 (219) 977-7777
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, Spanish 21, Baccarat, Mini-Baccarat, Big 6 Wheel, Pai Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride, Poker,Mississippi Stud

Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino

• 21 Blackjack Blvd, East Peoria, IL 61611
• 1 (309) 698-7711
• Games Offered: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Mini-Baccarat, Caribbean Stud Poker, Three-Card Poker, Let It Ride, Mississippi Stud, Poker, Big Six Wheel

Rivers Casino - Des Plaines

• 3000 S River Rd, Des Plaines, IL 60018
• 1 (847) 795-0777
• Games: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Mini-Baccarat, Baccarat, Caribbean Stud Poker, Three Card Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Spanish 21, Texas Hold'em Bonus, Mississippi Stud

Illinois Land-Based Casinos Map