Gamblers will no longer be allowed to use credit cards to bet on sports in Illinois, the Illinois Gaming Board announced Friday.
The prohibition on credit cards for sports wagering is meant to reduce compulsive gambling. It mirrors a ban on using credit cards to bet at casinos.
When legal sports wagering began in Illinois in 2020, sports betting was authorized in 13 other states, and none prohibited the use of credit cards. Since then, the industry has grown to where sports betting is legal in 40 states, and at least six, including nearby Iowa and Tennessee, have banned credit card use.
“There is a growing body of recent research showing that restrictions on credit usage to fund wagering accounts encourages responsible gambling and mitigates the harms of compulsive gambling,” board Administrator Marcus Fruchter said. “Problem gamblers are particularly at risk and studies have shown an often-problematic willingness for compulsive gamblers to use credit cards to place bets.”
Many popular sports betting sites accept credit cards, though some credit card companies may block use for sports gambling websites.
The board also decided to permit cashless wagering in all 17 Illinois casinos.
Cashless wagering refers to the use of digital payment methods, such as mobile apps, prepaid cards, or electronic wallets, to make bets and settle transactions.
In recent years, casinos have seen a significant shift towards cashless wagering, “revolutionizing” the way people gamble, the Association of Certified Gaming Compliance Specialists reported.
The new approach eliminates the need to carry large sums of cash, wait in long lines to exchange chips and lets players transfer from slot machines to table games without having to cash in or out. Players can set spending limits, time restrictions, or self-exclusion periods, encouraging healthier gambling habits.
But on some online sites, digital currencies and cashless wagering has been associated with increased addictive behavior, according to the association. Players can lose track of the amount of money they have spent, leading to potential money problems. Cashless systems have also been vulnerable to technical glitches, data breaches and money laundering, the association reported.
The change in Illinois would allow patrons to use a digital casino account or wallet to wager, withdraw electronic credits, fund wagers and cash out remaining credits. Cashless wagering accounts would be subject to state requirements including the credit card ban, the self-exclusion program, age restrictions and money laundering safeguards.
The credit card ban may prevent some people from going into debt to gamble, but people can get around it by getting cash advances, said Michelle Malkin, director of the Gambling Research & Policy Initiative at East Carolina University.
More worrisome, Malkin said, is the growth in cashless systems and mobile apps that let people gamble continuously.
In the past, gambling required going someplace and taking time to buy chips or coins, and taking breaks between games and bets — all of which gave gamblers time to think about whether they wanted to risk losing more money.
Now, cashless systems eliminate those needed breaks at casinos, and mobile gambling lets people bet any time of day from their own home.
Sports gambling in particular is dangerous, because it’s become so commonplace, especially among young men, and can be done continuously, with bets on nearly every play. Some apps give free bonuses for new players to use gambling, encouraging them to bet more often with bigger bets.
One East Carolina study found that after sports gambling legalization, almost 85% of college men were gambling, and another study found 13% of college males suffering a gambling-related harm, such as debt.
