{"id":796071,"date":"2026-07-12T00:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/796071\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T00:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:42:09","slug":"gambling-addiction-cases-rise-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/796071\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambling addiction cases rise in Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">CHICAGO (WLS) &#8212; ABC7&#8217;s &#8220;Weekend Watch&#8221; shines a spotlight on government activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Since Illinois legalized riverboat casinos in 1990, gambling has skyrocketed statewide, and so have the problems tied to it.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/watch\/live\/11064984\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Last year, Illinoisans lost more than $7.7 billion on the lottery, slot machines, casinos, and sports betting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That&#8217;s nearly double what they lost in 2019, after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a major expansion of casinos and legalized sports wagering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">While the state has seen a boost in tax revenue, it comes at a cost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">An estimated 1 million Illinois residents are either compulsive gamblers or at risk of becoming one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Yet, the state spends less than 0.1% of its gambling revenue on treating the addiction it causes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Nationally, problem gamblers have one of the highest rates of suicide and depression, which often leads to gambling-related crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Casey Toner from the Illinois Answers project joined ABC7 to discuss on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">This story is part of a collaboration between Illinois Answers and Capitol News Illinois. Click <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/illinoisanswers.org\/2026\/06\/24\/addicted-to-gambling-in-illinois-someone-has-decided-they-can-make-money-off-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a> for more.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) &#8212; ABC7&#8217;s &#8220;Weekend Watch&#8221; shines a spotlight on government activity. Since Illinois legalized riverboat casinos in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394,153479],"class_list":["post-796071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-no-ta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}