Illinois casinos will close for two weeks because of coronavirus concerns, the gaming board announced Friday shortly after Rivers, the state’s largest casino, said it would temporarily halt operations.

The Illinois Gaming Board ordered all of the state’s 10 casinos to close for 14 days beginning Monday. Rivers Casino in Des Plaines made a voluntary decision to close starting Sunday.

1. Casinos and other gambling facilities around Illinois will be among the indoor entertainment venues required to close doors beginning Friday, November 20, under a slew of new orders and restrictions announced by Gov. Pritzker on Tuesday.
2. Illinois casinos will close for two weeks because of coronavirus concerns, the gaming board announced Friday shortly after Rivers, the state’s largest casino, said it would temporarily halt.
3. Casinos in Illinois, which re-opened July 1 at 50% capacity after being shut down in mid-March, have been operating at 25% capacity across the state since Oct. 28, with advanced mitigation measures in place. With the state broken into 11 regions for COVID-19 purposes, some casinos had been operating at 25% capacity as early as Oct.

Five tribes propose building commercial casinos in Illinois. October 25, 2019. Illinois has authorized six new casinos to be licensed and built under the Rebuild Illinois Act signed into law by Gov. Pritzker on June 29, 2019. The good news for gamblers in the Prairie State comes after Illinois emerged from Thanksgiving without a rise in COVID-19 cases. Reasons to be optimistic Illinois’s Tier 3 restrictions came into effect on November 19, shuttering performing arts and movie theatres as well as indoor sports recreation centers.

“Although there have been no known cases of COVID-19 at the property, we are suspending operations out of an abundance of caution and to promote the social distancing recommended by health officials,” Rivers said in a news release.

The abrupt closing of Rivers and the other casinos is a sign of just how fast the coronavirus pandemic is changing the game for Chicago-area businesses large and small.

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On Monday, Rivers opened the state’s first sports book with great fanfare, launching just ahead of the potentially lucrative March Madness NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which was scheduled to begin Sunday.

By Friday, the tournament was cancelled, the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons and Major League Baseball canceled the rest of spring training and pushed opening day back at least two weeks, leaving little to bet on at Rivers’ new sports book.

An order by Gov. J.B. Pritzker Thursday to shut down events of more than 1,000 people played into Rivers’ decision to close the casino.

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“We have been and will continue to carefully follow the advice and guidance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health experts, and the State of Illinois — including the principles set forth in Governor Pritzker’s March 12 address,” Rivers said in its news release.

It was a different story earlier this week at Rivers, as casino executives, gaming board officials and politicians gathered to watch former Chicago Blackhawks star Eddie Olcyzk place the first legal sports bet in Illinois. But the elephant in the room was the spreading coronavirus outbreak, which triggered a stock market selloff and cast a pall over the ceremonial opening.

At the event, Neil Bluhm, the Chicago real estate developer whose Rush Street Gaming built and operates Rivers Casino, vowed the casino would “get through this virus.” But like many other businesses, the casino will now wait it out from the sidelines over the next two weeks.

Rivers said it would continue normal payroll for its employees during the 14-day suspension.

On Friday morning, the Argosy Casino Alton near St. Louis announced it was canceling its grand opening scheduled for Monday, but that it was still taking bets on the dwindling number of sporting events that remained active.

That plan was moot by Friday evening, after the gaming board issued the order for all Illinois casinos to cease gambling operations no later than midnight Monday for at least 14 days.

The decision to temporarily close the state’s 10 casinos does not affect the more than 7,000 licensed bars, restaurants, truck stops and fraternal organizations featuring video gaming terminals, Joe Miller, Illinois Gaming Commission spokesman, said late Friday.

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Gov. Pritzker makes announcement

Riverboat casinos in Illinois could be back in action on January 15 after Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that all 11 regions in the state can soon move out of Tier 3 restrictions, subject to COVID-19-related metrics.

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Gov. Pritzker posted a video tweet of the January 6 press briefing, which also featured an update from the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Dr Ngozi Ezike.

The good news for gamblers in the Prairie State comes after Illinois emerged from Thanksgiving without a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Reasons to be optimistic

Illinois’s Tier 3 restrictions came into effect on November 19, shuttering performing arts and movie theatres as well as indoor sports recreation centers. Casinos and gaming venues, which were already operating under Tier 2 mitigation procedures that included closing at 11pm and a 25% capacity limit, were also on the November closure list. Gambling facilities reapply these measures once they move back to Tier 2.

early signs that some regions have made real progress”

In his Wednesday news briefing, Gov. Pritzker said that, on the advice of Dr Ezike and other infectious disease experts in the state, it would be “unwise to downgrade any region […] while in the holiday season.”

As Illinois lifts Tier 3 restrictions across its 11 regions on January 15 subject to meeting set metrics, state officials will be on the lookout for any signs of an increase in infection rates following a post-festive season incubation period. Pritzker, however, said he was “cautiously optimistic as there are some early signs that some regions have made real progress.”

Welcome return to business

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For the Land of Lincoln’s ten riverboat casinos, the potential January 15 reopening date signals a welcome return to business, particularly for Caesars Entertainment and Penn National Gaming, which operate three riverboat casinos apiece.

Before the full November shutdown order came into effect, figures published by the Illinois Gaming Board revealed that the riverboat casinos posted an October 2020 revenue of $16.5m. This was just a third of the $168.4m that the state’s 37,459 video gaming terminals (VGTs) made in the same month, before they too had to switch off under Tier 3 regulations. The municipal tax that VGTs contributed to state coffers in October alone was over half the revenue made by the riverboat casinos.