The Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) has updated its rules on how casinos, sportsbooks, and video gaming terminal host businesses can advertise.
State gaming regulators last week voted in favor of implementing a series of new limitations regarding how gaming operators market their businesses.
Effective immediately, gaming firms can no longer use language suggesting that a gambler can participate without risk. As such, wording like “risk-free” and “free bet” are banned.
Gaming companies are prohibited from advertising at sporting competitions and events where the majority of attendees are likely to be under the age of 21. Sports betting advertising is illegal on all college campuses and college-focused media.
College newspapers and online websites can no longer accept advertising from sportsbooks or casinos. Local restaurants and bars that house VGTs cannot directly advertise their gaming machines in college media.
Wagering and gambling logos are also banned from clothes and gifts that predominantly appeal to underage people.
Opt-Out Information Required
Under the new IGB advertising rules, all marketing communications sent to patrons and targeted consumers must include an “opt-out” option that’s readily displayed and accessible. The opt-out function should allow a consumer to easily remove themselves from future marketing.
As part of the IGB’s ongoing work to reassess existing rules and measure the effectiveness of gaming expansion implementation, the IGB amended the current advertising and marketing rules for sports wagering to include additional safeguards and requirements and also make those rules applicable for the first time to casino gambling and video gaming,” said IGB Administrator Marcus Fruchter. “The new rules adopted today will provide uniform advertising regulation and standards across all Illinois’ gaming markets under IGB jurisdiction.”
Illinois is home to 15 casinos, 15 sportsbooks, and a network of more than 8,700 VGT establishments. The state’s gaming industry continues to expand with new brick-and-mortar casinos in Chicago and its suburbs. Bally’s plans to open its integrated resort casino in downtown Chicago in the fall of 2026.
Wild Wild West
The sports betting industry has come under fire for its incessant advertising and concerns that many state gaming regulators haven’t implemented enough guardrails to protect consumers. Last week, a federal bill was introduced to Congress that seeks to rein in the ballooning industry.
US Rep. Paul Tonko (D-New York) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) are backing the Supporting Affordability & Fairness With Every Bet Act (SAFE Bet Act). The statute would direct sports betting states to adopt a series of regulatory conditions designed to better protect consumers.
Among the bill’s components are prohibiting sportsbooks from using “risk-free” language and eliminating deposit bonuses. The SAFE Bet Act would additionally ban sportsbooks from advertising during all live sports programming and between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The use of credit cards to fund an online sportsbook account would also become illegal on the national level. Tonko says sports betting ads have “reached intolerably dangerous levels” and it’s time for Congress to act to protect the public.
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