Illinois Getting Ready To Go "All In" On Sports Gambling, But The State Gov't Is Ruining It Already

(Source)Sports gambling, a multibillion-dollar industry that mostly relies on the black market, may soon go legit in Illinois.

Backed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a host of gaming interests, Illinois is looking to join New Jersey, Pennsylvania and a growing number of states to legalize sports betting, turning the widely practiced but illicit activity into a bounteous source of tax revenue.

This was in the Chicago Tribune yesterday afternoon. While it wasn’t exactly new news every time I read a paragraph about legalized gambling in Illinois I get SUPER excited. I want to do a jig. I want to lift JB Pritzker up on my shoulders with the help of maybe like 4 friends and a forklift. The Devil is always in the details though. And in this case those details include the Illinois Government. In the very next paragraph:

Don’t lose your bookie’s number just yet, however. To get it done, lawmakers and businesses face a series of hurdles.

Illinois legislators, for one, need to figure out where sports betting should take place, how much to tax bettors and whether to limit it to bricks-and-mortar locations or allow more lucrative online betting as well.

I am sorry…what did you say?

“how much to tax bettors”

Hey morons…have you evver heard of the expression “the house always wins”. That’s because they do. Always. You don’t tax people for the privledge of just placing a bet. Everyone, every single person in the world, is already losing money to their bookie. But we don’t need to pay a tax on top of our losing. And we don’t pay taxes on our winnings. Illinois Dept of Revenue is going to be the most successful bookie whoever existed. The system is already in place. Use the same system that Frank and Tony have been using since the beginning of time. Maybe I am just a naive little idiot, but I really thought that Illinois would simply just be taking our bets via UncleSamSports.gov/IL and my life wouldn’t really change. My losses would just go to the government instead of some gabagool. If just winning isn’t enough for the State House then I don’t even want it to pass. I should be able to write-off losses against taxes. Even bookies will give you a free play. The Government is being way too greedy here and It ain’t right.