casinos

The slot machines and restaurants are ready to roll at Rockford's temporary casino, but first, it has to get past one last obstacle.

It's not only legalized marijuana that's having a big year in Illinois, as legalized sports gambling has firmly taken hold in our state.

So you can't exactly belly up to the blackjack table at your favorite Illinois casino yet, but you will be able to resume video gambling a week from Friday.

Estimates peg Illinois' casino losses during the COVID-19 lockdown at nearly $100 million. Today, the Illinois Gaming Board will meet to talk about reopening strategies.

Not only will our state's casinos remain shuttered, but video gaming in Illinois will also stay unplugged until further notice.

We've said it before, and it will be said many more times: "Illinois is too hard on itself." To be fair, many times we're hard on ourselves for good reasons--high property taxes, ineffective state government, massive pension debts, crime, corruption, to name just a few. But even with those negatives, it seems that Illinois is still fun. And, a lot more fun than many other states. Read Mo