Betting Against Increased Taxes, DraftKings Is Spending Big on Illinois State Races
The sports gambling industry is pouring more than a million dollars into local Illinois races in a gambit to evade regulations and higher taxes.
Matthew Cunningham-Cook
Published jointly with the Center for Media and Democracy
Last September the sports betting duopoly DraftKings and FanDuel ran into a brick wall in Illinois. Once the state started assessing a $0.25 trade tax on every bet, sports betting “plummeted” in the state by 15% year over year.
The result? American Future, a super PAC bankrolled by DraftKings’ wholly owned subsidiary, DK Crown Holdings, is spending big—$1.2 million—in the Democratic primaries for Illinois legislative seats, according to reporting from Capitol Fax and the latest campaign finance filings. Intent on electing representatives who will resist further taxes on the gaming industry, the PAC has become the largest outside spender so far in the Illinois state legislative primary slated for March 17.
Nationwide, sports betting companies have massively amped up their spending, with FanDuel and DraftKings donating over $4 million to SuperPACs this cycle, in marked contrast to earlier cycles where they spent barely anything at all.
American Future’s biggest beneficiary, receiving more than $263,000, is Emil Jones III, a state senator who was indicted in 2022 on federal bribery charges, and faces little-known opponents in his race to hold on to his seat. In a race featuring a stark ideological contrast, American Future has spent over $220,000 in the 40th Legislative District in northwest Chicago, backing an entrenched Democratic machine incumbent, Jaime Andrade, Jr., against a democratic socialist challenger, Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, who, in a statement to the Center for Media and Democracy, pledged to “fight to tax wealthy corporations and individuals in Illinois, and… make sure they know our legislature isn’t for sale.”
The industry is particularly incensed about the way Illinois has chosen to structure its tax on sports betting. Instead of taxing winnings as in most other states, it collects taxes on a per-bet basis, which in turn has led to the decrease in betting. “[T]his is the only jurisdiction across all 30 states with online sports betting where this is actually happening,” Joe Maloney, head of the national Sports Betting Alliance, told Peoria-based 25News, an ABC affiliate.
The state’s tax per wager is also coupled with local taxes, as in Chicago, where progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson has assessed a 10.25% sports betting tax under a new licensing law — one that the Sports Betting Alliance is challenging as unconstitutional.
Representative Andrade has been in office since 2013. Prior to being elected to the state House, he worked for longtime Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, the father-in-law of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D), who was pardoned by President Donald Trump in February 2025.
Andrade is being challenged by Alvelo-Rivera, the executive director of the workers center Latino Union of Chicago. His backers include Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez and two more progressive Democrats, the area’s Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez and State Senator Gracila Guzman, as well as the Chicago Teachers Union. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer, has championed Chicago’s local betting tax. (Mayor Johnson has remained neutral in the race.)
American Future has also spent $164,000 to support Adam Braun, a former lobbyist who has worked for the corporate law firm Orrick, which represents DraftKings and FanDuels, who is running for state representative in the 13th District; $125,000 on Saba Haider in the 84th District, running against a candidate, Jared Ploger, who is also backed by teachers unions; and $159,000 backing Aja Kearney, also in Chicago in the 34th district.
Since Illinois implemented its sports betting tax last fall, changes in federal tax law that are seen as disadvantageous to the industry have also taken a toll, leading to precipitous declines in the value of stock in both DraftKings’ and Fanduels’ parent companies.
DraftKings earned a profit of just $3.7 million in 2025, while FanDuels’ parent company Flutter lost over $400 million. Until 2023, Flutter had received significant backing from the powerful private equity firm KKR. DraftKings, for its part, has launched a venture capital firm with powerhouse General Catalyst.
While 22% percent of Americans have bet on sports in the last year, increasingly more people are beginning to view sports betting as a public health problem. By amping up their electoral funding efforts, sports betting giants like DraftKings are feverishly betting on ways to keep states like Illinois and cities like Chicago from eating into their profits.
