DraftKings spent $9 million building a retail sportsbook at Wrigley Field. Two years later, they’re ripping the betting windows out and calling it a “sports lounge.” The DraftKings Wrigley Field sportsbook closing on May 31 tells you everything about what Illinois has done to legal sports betting — and we’ve been screaming about this for months.
Why Did DraftKings Kill a $9 Million Sportsbook After Two Years?
Three words: taxes on taxes.
Illinois hits sportsbooks with a 20-40% graduated tax on gross revenue. That alone is brutal. But then the state became the first in the country to slap a per-bet excise tax on top of it — $0.25 on every single wager for the first 20 million bets, jumping to $0.50 after that. Every. Single. Bet. Not on revenue. On volume.
And then Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson piled on a 10.25% city tax on sports betting revenue starting January 2026.
Do the math on that for a second. A retail sportsbook attached to a baseball stadium — open only during games and events — has to eat a 40% state tax, a per-bet fee, AND a 10.25% city surcharge. The margins don’t exist. DraftKings said it themselves: “The cost of operating in Illinois makes it more difficult to justify continued investment.”
No kidding.
What Illinois Bettors Are Actually Paying Right Now
Here’s what nobody else is telling you. FanDuel already started passing these costs directly to bettors with a $0.50 surcharge on every Illinois wager. You’re literally paying a tax on your bet before the vig even touches you.
I ran the numbers on a typical week for someone placing 15-20 bets:
That $250-500 a year is money straight out of your bankroll. Not from losing bets — from taxes. I talked to a guy at a Wrigleyville bar last month who had no idea the surcharge was even hitting his account. He thought his lines just “got worse.” They did. Because of this.
Where Smart Illinois Bettors Are Placing Wagers Instead
Look, we’re not going to pretend this is complicated. Offshore sportsbooks don’t pay Illinois taxes. They don’t charge per-bet fees. They don’t add surcharges because the city council decided bettors are a piggy bank.
Bovada has been our go-to for Illinois bettors who are sick of getting nickel-and-dimed. Standard -110 lines without surcharges, crypto payouts that actually move fast, and zero tax nonsense passed onto your account. BetOnline runs similar pricing and their live betting interface is actually faster than what DraftKings offers on mobile.
MyBookie is another solid option — check our MyBookie honest review if you want the full breakdown. We’ve been testing their MLB lines all season and they’re consistently competitive, sometimes offering -108 on sides where regulated IL books are sitting at -112 or worse after fees.
The Prediction Market Problem Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s the kicker that should make every Illinois bettor’s blood boil. Prediction markets like Kalshi are offering contracts on the exact same sporting events — and they pay ZERO state or city sports betting taxes. They’re regulated by the CFTC, not the Illinois Gaming Board. So while you’re paying a $0.50 surcharge to bet Cubs moneyline on a regulated app, someone on Kalshi is trading the same outcome with better pricing and no tax overhead.
DraftKings actually runs its own prediction market platform in 48 states. But in Illinois, where they offer traditional sports betting, they can’t offer sports predictions. The whole system is eating itself.
What’s the Play Here?
$429 million. That’s what Illinois collected in sports wagering tax revenue in 2025. And their reward for squeezing that hard? Retail sportsbooks closing, bettors fleeing to offshore, and prediction markets siphoning volume without paying a dime.
We’ve been saying this since the per-bet tax dropped — and now DraftKings just proved it with a $9 million receipt. The regulated market in Illinois is pricing itself into irrelevance.
If you’re still betting on regulated Illinois apps and eating those surcharges, that’s your call. But the value play is offshore, and it isn’t close. Bovada, BetOnline, MyBookie — none of them are going to charge you fifty cents just to place a f*cking parlay.
Real talk: Illinois isn’t the only state making this mistake. We’ve been tracking state gambling legislation all year, and the tax squeeze is coming for more markets. Smart bettors are getting ahead of it.
📂 Explore more: Illinois
