The Illinois Gaming Board voted unanimously to move ahead with rules that would make it easier for gamblers to join the state’s self-exclusion list and easier to leave it sooner, Capitol News Illinois reported Friday. The proposal would allow people to sign up by mail, online or through treatment-provider referrals, add six-month, one-year and three-year exclusion terms, and bar gambling companies from targeting people coming off the list for at least 12 months.
The changes would address a system that, for now, relies heavily on in-person enrollment. Applicants can sign up at one of 32 sites in Illinois, and half of those are casinos. Outside Chicago, there are only five non-casino options sanctioned by the board, and Marcus Fruchter said Illinois currently has no notarized mail option, no treatment-provider pathway and no online portal in operation.
Fruchter said research shows that shame, embarrassment, stigma and the hassle of signing up are among the most common reasons people never complete self-exclusion. The shorter terms would be a new option alongside the current five-year-or-longer exclusions, and people on the five-year or indefinite tiers would still need an affidavit or letter from a certified gambling addiction counselor confirming that they are no longer problem gamblers.
The board’s website says people seeking removal from the programme must already provide that kind of affidavit after five years, and the proposed rules would preserve that requirement for the longer exclusion tiers. Alyssa Wilson said shorter cool-off periods could reduce barriers for people seeking help, and she argued that Illinois could do a lot if it stopped making five years the minimum.
The proposal comes as the state’s gambling market has widened far beyond what existed when the self-exclusion list began in 2002. The list lets people bar themselves from sports betting, casinos and other legalized wagering, but it does not cover the state’s network of more than 50,000 slot machines. Nearly 16,000 people have signed up, while a state-commissioned study estimated that 383,000 Illinois adults have a gambling problem and 761,000 are at risk of developing one.
Fruchter said legalized gambling has grown significantly in Illinois since the 2019 Gaming Expansion Law, making updates necessary. The proposed rules now go to the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules for public comment and review, a process Capitol News Illinois said could take six months to a year.
