- Illinois casinos won $192.7 million in July, up 15% from $167.5 million a year earlier.
- Slot machines produced $147.2 million of that total against $45.4 million from every table game.
- Illinois averaged 223 blackjack tables in June, six more than in the same month of 2025.
- Paying a natural 6:5 instead of 3:2 adds about 1.39 percentage points to the house edge.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Illinois casinos won $192.7 million in July, up 15% from a year earlier, in the first full month with both of Penn Entertainment’s converted riverboats dealing on land. The state averaged 223 blackjack tables in June, six more than in the same month of 2025.
Slots Took Three Of Every Four Dollars
Adjusted gross receipts across the state’s 17 casinos reached $192,662,974 in July, according to the Illinois Gaming Board’s monthly casino report. Electronic gaming devices supplied $147.2 million of it, up 15.4%, and live table games supplied $45.4 million, up 13.8%.
That split is not a neutral one. A slot machine keeps roughly 6% of every dollar wagered, with real programs running anywhere from about 2% to 10%, and the reel never stops to shuffle.
A six-deck blackjack game with the dealer standing on soft 17, doubling allowed on any two cards, doubling after splits and late surrender gives up about 0.34% a hand to perfect basic strategy. Three of every four dollars Illinois players lost in July went into the more expensive game.
Attendance grew far more slowly than the money. The casinos logged 1,452,047 admissions, up 8.6%, so win per admission rose to $132.68 from $125.29.
The Two Boats That Came Ashore
Hollywood Casino Joliet, which moved off the Des Plaines River in August 2025, won $12,210,550 in July. In the riverboat’s final July a year earlier it operated 28 days and won $4,125,423. Its table games alone went from $831,576 to $2,084,049.
Hollywood Casino Aurora opened its replacement property on June 24 and posted its first full 31-day month in July, against 17 operating days in June. It won $17,424,385, up 84% from $9,446,923, on a gaming floor the Board lists at 53,407 square feet against 41,384 for the boat.
Neither is the biggest room in Illinois. Rivers Casino Des Plaines won $46,738,448 in July, including $17,765,716 at the tables, a 14.3% gain. Wind Creek Chicago Southland followed at $19,743,699.
Seven Rooms Added Blackjack, Six Cut It
The Board publishes its table-by-table counts a month behind the revenue summary, so June is the most recent look at what is actually on the felt. The 223 blackjack tables Illinois averaged that month were made up of 130 standard games, 88 carrying the 21+3 side bet and five Spanish 21. The June 2025 figure was 217. With no regulated online casino in the state, that count is the entire public picture of Illinois blackjack sites.
Joliet’s new floor holds the largest single gain. It averaged 10 blackjack tables in June against six on the boat a year earlier, and 23 table games overall against 15. Fairmount Park, the Collinsville track that reported no table games at all in June 2025, now runs eight of them, three dealing blackjack, and its July win rose 90% to $2,458,814. Bally’s Quad Cities and Harrah’s Joliet each added two, and Bally’s Chicago, Grand Victoria and Par-A-Dice one apiece.
Aurora ran the other way, averaging nine blackjack tables against 12 a year earlier, the steepest drop in the state. That number counts a month the casino spent half closed rather than a decision to shrink the pit.
Five casinos that operated both months each dropped one: Argosy Casino Alton, Harrah’s Metropolis, Walker’s Bluff, Wind Creek Chicago Southland and the Waukegan casino the Board lists as FHR-Illinois. Four rooms, Rivers and Hard Rock Casino Rockford among them, held their counts flat. Concrete is the constraint a live dealer blackjack studio never faces, since another table there means another camera on another shoe.
Blackjack Is Still The Biggest Game In The Pit
Blackjack produced $13.1 million of the $43.7 million in gross table receipts Illinois casinos reported for June, a 30% share and more than baccarat and mini-baccarat combined at $12.1 million. Craps took $5.2 million and roulette $5.1 million. Blackjack receipts rose 11.9% year over year against 7.7% for the pit as a whole.
Almost half of that blackjack money, $5.8 million, came at the 88 tables the Board counts separately because they carry 21+3. That side bet pays on the player’s two cards and the dealer’s up card, settles on its own pay table, and sits outside the 0.34% edge of the base game.
More Tables Do Not Mean Better Tables
Illinois sets no minimum blackjack payout. The Illinois Gaming Board approves each property’s rules, and 6:5 naturals turn up regularly on the state’s low-limit tables alongside 3:2 games at higher stakes.
The gap between those two felts is worth more than most rule tweaks. Paying a natural 6:5 instead of 3:2 adds about 1.39 percentage points to the house edge, four times the entire edge of the reference six-deck game.
It does that without changing how often a natural arrives, which stays near 4.75% of opening hands. The probability belongs to the deck and the payout belongs to the casino, and 6:5 simply widens the distance between them. That is the same arithmetic that separates a good table from a bad one at online blackjack sites for USA players.
What The Next Report Will Show
The Board’s July table-game detail, due with next month’s release, will be the first full-month count of Aurora’s finished floor. The property advertises more than 50 live table games at its new North Farnsworth Avenue address, against the 27 the Board averaged for the casino in a June split between a closing riverboat and an opening building.
