Last month Governor J. B. Pritzker introduced new measures permitting casinos across Illinois to re-open from 1st July 2020 and signed an executive order temporarily relaxing restrictions on bettors having to register in-person in order to access online sports betting services.
However, Governor Pritzker failed to extend the executive order relaxing the requirement and consumers in Illinois will once again have to register in person for online sports betting accounts.
Once the state’s casinos were forced to temporarily close in mid-March 2020 due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, in-person registration became impossible.
Casinos were, however, given permission to re-open from 1st July 2020 after regions across the state reached the health benchmarks set out which would allow the state to move towards Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan. Casinos have been permitted to re-open in line with a number of measures to help slow the spread of Covid-19, including operating at 50% capacity.
The Executive Order was due to last for as long as the state’s Gubernatorial Disaster Proclamations were in effect with the fifth and most recent Proclamations, also designed to support the state during the pandemic, ending on Sunday, 26th July 2020.
Despite the fact that Pritzker extended several Executive Orders to run in line with ongoing Covid-19 measures, the temporary removal of in-person registration was not among those that were renewed.
It would, therefore, appear that consumers in Illinois must once again register at approved venues in order to open a new online sports betting account with licensed operators in the state.