A City Council panel pushed through legislation Tuesday to ban sweepstakes gambling terminals that operate in a legal gray area in Chicago, a loss for Mayor Brandon Johnson after his administration asked for more time to review such a prohibition.
The Committee on License and Consumer Protection approved in a voice vote far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale’s ordinance to prohibit so-called “sweepstakes” gambling machines that currently dodge regulation by avoiding cash payouts. Alds. Nicholas Sposato, Angela Clay and David Moore voted no.
The proposal, which still requires full City Council approval, is the latest front in the ongoing debate among Chicago leaders over how to regulate or tax gambling amid historic fiscal shortfalls.
The 2026 budget passed by aldermen over Johnson’s objections calls for legalizing video gambling machines as part of a bundle of deficit-plugging measures. Beale, a mayoral opponent, led the charge to include the legalization in the final proposal.
The sweepstakes machines that would be banned under Beale’s ordinance are separate and already ubiquitous in Chicago, particularly in gas stations across the South and West sides. But those hundreds of machines do not generate revenue for the city.
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Though Beale, 9th, has previously called for the city to allow and regulate sweepstakes machines, prohibiting them outright could also benefit his move to more broadly legalize the video gambling industry in Chicago. He added Tuesday he believes the state, which does not recognize sweepstakes machines, would crack down on the city if it were to permit them.
“We’re turning a blind eye on an industry that has taken advantage of the South and West Side under the guidelines that these are Black and brown businesses,” Beale said before the vote. “The city of Chicago hasn’t gotten one benefit from sweepstakes machines. Not one.”
Johnson’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Ivan Capifali testified against the ban on Tuesday, arguing there are concerns over aligning the fee structure with the rest of city and state codes as well as “ensuring that regulations are not overly broad or burdensome, and addressing disparate impacts on various communities.”
Capifali also said the city has received few complaints with the key word “sweepstake” — 21 in all of 2025 and 13 so far in 2026. Black Caucus chair Ald. Stephanie Coleman balked at those figures, saying they are a problem for the 7th Chicago Police district in her South Side ward “on a daily basis.”
Beale’s ordinance would take effect 10 days after passage and fine illegal operators $1,000 per machine, then $2,000 as well as a business license suspension if they aren’t removed after the first warning. A third violation would lead to the operator’s business license being revoked.
Since this year’s budget took effect in January, several Beale allies have raised concerns about the budget clause legalizing video gambling terminals, an effort that has previously failed on its own in the council and received little public scrutiny from aldermen during the recent budget fight.
Johnson’s top adviser, Jason Lee, also told the Tribune in January that legalization “requires more time and some judicious collaboration,” citing the need for more vendor diversity and input from the operators of Bally’s, the first Chicago casino. The different tax rates could leave Chicago with less money, Johnson’s top finance leaders warned aldermen throughout last year — a prediction sharply at odds with Beale’s optimism with legalization.
Ahead of the vote, Ald. Anthony Napolitano, 41st, said throughout his entire tenure representing a Northwest Side border ward, the lack of movement on regulating video gambling gets him “destroyed by my surrounding suburbs.”
“Nobody wants to have the conversation. Nobody wants to go into making the system better work for the city of Chicago, as well as how we’re competing with our surrounding suburbs,” Napolitano, who voted yes, said. “Nobody has done that for 12 years.”
But his neighbor Sposato, 38th, said he supports both sweepstakes and video gambling terminals and could not back a ban that he said hurts his local businesses.
Ald. Monique Scott said despite supporting Beale’s measure, concerns remain for small businesses in her West Side ward. But she said she was frustrated by the lack of movement from the Johnson administration.
“We talk about how the machines are illegal, but we give them a sticker,” Scott, 24th, said. “We need more support from the administration and BACP to put these people online, to make them legal and to make sure that African Americans have the same right and equitable investment that others will have.”