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Illinois brings back in-person sports betting registration
The state of Illinois has once again imposed in-person registration as being mandatory after Executive Order 2020-41 expired on the 3rd of April. This order was aimed at suspending the in-person obligation.
Starting from the 4th of April, all new sports betting operator clients will have to register in-person in order to begin placing bets online. J.B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois, was the one to sign off the order in the first place. This order was first imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it allowed all customers to register online, since it was much safer than having to go to a retail shop in-person.
As the pandemic went on and there was no end in sight, the order kept getting extended as the most recent extension expired at the beginning of this month.
financial officer of PointsBet, Andrew Mellor, claimed that the re-establishment of this rule will help the business since PointsBet itself operates all across Chicago with various retail shops.
He went on to further mention:
“PointsBet’s strategic retail sportsbook locations, including the Hawthorne Race Course located just 8.5 miles from downtown Chicago, and the three off track betting shops in the greater metro Chicago area, provides a significant competitive advantage in an in-person registration environment.”
The state of Illinois initially legalised online sports betting back in 2019, with plans set in motion back in February of this year for iGaming to become legal.
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