Illinois State Senator Questions Legality Of Online Lottery Games

A portion of Tuesday’s informational hearing in the Illinois Senate’s Gaming, Wagering, and Racing Committee dedicated to a bill proposing updating outdated language for the state lottery was completely upended when Sen. Cristina Castro questioned Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays over the legality of online ticket sales for progressive jackpots.

Castro, who is the sub-vice chair of the committee, filed a bill (SB 1963) for this General Assembly looking to legalize internet casino gaming in Illinois. She re-directed the discussion centered around Senate Bill 2147 by inquiring about the Illinois Lottery‘s “Fast Play” games with Mays, pointing out a $30 draw game called Cash Castle available through both the retail and online lottery with a progressive jackpot that is currently near $900,000.

The state senator noted the game’s design “looked like slot machines,” which led to her point-blank question for Mays: Where did the Illinois Lottery get permission to institute iGaming without the need for the approval of the General Assembly?

Mays: Following the law as written

Mays said Cash Castle and other such games are legal to sell both in the retail space and online as allowed in the Illinois Lottery Law. The relevant section debated between Castro and Mays, which was updated in Fiscal Year 2019, is fairly straightforward: “Any draw game tickets that are approved for sale by lottery licensees are automatically approved for sale through the Internet program.”

Castro, though, took issue with the nature of the progressive jackpot as part of this specific draw game, saying there was a difference between selling the ticket strictly as a retail option versus both retail and online. She questioned if there were any “mechanisms to protect folks” in place, and also took issue with Cash Castle having a game design that included slot machines.

Mays countered that Cash Castle is “not a slide game. It’s truly a draw game,” which only seemed to antagonize Castro as she retorted, “OK, Harold, it says ‘slots.’

“I mean, come on, I get what you’re getting at, but you want to call it a draw game, then why do you call it slots?”

Mays responded the Illinois Lottery also has “a bingo game that we call bingo, but it’s not bingo. It’s a bingo scratch ticket or bingo fast play game. It just creates a simulation, but it’s not playing bingo, and it’s not playing slots.”

Castro drops the hammer

Castro then went all in, saying she could not “recall a bill that allowed you to do online gaming,” and added, “this is bypassing, in my opinion, the gaming board and what they regulate and how they regulate sports wagering and different things. We never authorized or allowed you to do this.

“I think you’re taking broad authority as the lottery doing this, and honestly, I think you should stop without the authority of the General Assembly.”

Castro circled back to the issue of the progressive jackpots, asking if there is a disclaimer about the jackpot constantly updating since there are both retail and online ticket sales. Mays responded affirmatively there is such a disclaimer on every ticket that “describes it as a progressive jackpot that changes every time a wager is placed.”

The senator still felt Mays and the lottery were overstepping their bounds by making a “whole bunch of changes without consulting or consultation with the General Assembly,” and pointed out the director still had not answered her question of whether such games were in violation of the Lottery Act.

When Mays cited the FY 2019 law allowing for the mirror sales of retail lottery draw games to online ones and said, “We would never circumvent the laws in place for us to operate,” Castro again brought up Cash Castle as an example of potential illegality.

“But you’re circumventing them now because you’re playing on what is a draw game,” she responded. “What I’m showing on the screen, it says ‘slots.’ Slots. So you’re misrepresenting what it is to consumers by saying it’s slots.”

Cunningham finally intervenes

After Castro called Sen. Bill Cunningham into the discussion with a potential changing of the definition of a draw game, the Gaming, Wagering, and Racing chair weighed in after he too viewed Cash Castle.

“While I think the director may be giving an answer that is technically correct, if something looks like, smells like, and breathes like an online slot machine, I think it’s maybe something that we need to consider and get some clarification from the lottery and address these concerns,” Cunningham said.

The bill that was originally going to be discussed proposes making the Illinois Lottery official website the primary source of all gaming-related information as opposed to an annual update in the Illinois Register. It also would give the state agency direct control over all lottery payouts as opposed to requiring the state comptroller to handle ones over a certain threshold.

Castro’s line of questioning, however, also brought into focus that the current internet program written into the Illinois Lottery Law has a July 1 sunset date.