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Tier 3 to Tier 2

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January 12, 2021 10:23 pm 25 News Coronavirus, Top Stories EAST PEORIA (WEEK) - It's game on at Par-A-Dice casino in East Peoria. Staffers there have been told they should expect to be ready to go.

A few Illinois casinos can reopen starting at 8am on January 16, thanks to the reclassification of regions in the state by the Department of Public Health. Regions 1, 2, and 5 have moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 on the state’s COVID-19 mitigation response scale, which means certain services, like casino gaming, can resume. Regions 1 and 2 comprise the northwestern portion of the state and Region 5 is in the southeast.

indoor facilities are allowed to reopen

The main differences between Tier 3 and Tier 2 are that indoor facilities are allowed to reopen, though many with very limited numbers. Of course, social distancing, mask-wearing, and other COVID-19 precautions remain in place.

Which Illinois casinos can reopen?

The facilities allowed to get back to work after the tier mitigation changes include Jumer’s Casino & Hotel (Region 2), Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino (Region 2), and Harrah’s Metropolis (Region 5). The first two casinos have already posted details of the reopening process on their websites. It is unclear as of the time of this writing if Harrah’s will be ready to resume services by tomorrow.

Par-A-Dice took to Twitter to announce the reopening:

The Illinois Gaming Board has provided details on the reopening rules. Casinos in both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 regions may only be open from 8am until 11pm daily. The occupancy level for each venue is a strict 25%. Food and beverage service are not allowed indoors. Casinos can provide outdoor service, as well as carryout and curbside.

Jumer’s provided details on the reopening process as they it gets ready for an early morning reopening. The casino will offer slots and table games at a reduced rate. There will be zero poker games on offer.

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The casino also reported its reopening on Twitter:

The property will provide carryout food via Blue Square To Go. Players can only drink bottled water on the gaming floor.

Following protocols

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Employees and patrons must wear a mask at all times inside the casinos. The properties are prohibiting any gatherings of groups around gaming tables. All Casino Pandemic Resumption Plans remain in effect, meaning that social distancing, mask-wearing, sanitizing, and other protocols for mitigation will continue.

Video gaming at licensed venues can also resume in Tier 1 and 2 regions. The hours are restricted just like they are for the rest of the property, from 8am to 11pm. The same food and beverage rules apply to video gaming areas, as do the other health and safety protocols.

Expected reopening

It was expected that casinos would reopen this week after Governor J.B. Pritzker announced earlier this month that all regions of the state could be moving out of Tier 3 restrictions shortly. The governor held a press briefing on January 6 that included an update from Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state’s Department of Public Health director.

Illinois has been able to avoid a significant rise in COVID-19 cases after the holidays. Officials expected regions in Tier 3 to move down a tier after reaching certain set metrics. Health experts continued to monitor signs of infection increase after the holidays to ensure that outbreaks were not notably worse than before.

Pritzer said in the press conference that he was cautiously optimistic that some regions had made real progress. And it seems they have, as three regions are now down to the next tier level, allowing a handful of casinos to reopen. The regions that remain in Tier 3 mostly contain the state’s denser population centers.

Aiming for NFL season

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It appears that FanDuel is on track to launch its mobile sportsbook in Illinois just in time for the start of the National Football League (NFL) season. According to SportsHandle, Par-A-Dice Casino, FanDuel’s brick-and-mortar partner in the state, has filed the required paperwork with the Illinois Gaming Board to allow it to begin offering online and mobile sports betting.

puts a possible go-live date at September 9, exactly one day before the NFL season kicks off

The East Peoria casino submitted the forms on August 19, a key date because the Board tends to take two to three weeks to approve applications. Three weeks from August 19 puts a possible go-live date at September 9, exactly one day before the NFL season kicks off. Football season is the biggest money-making season for American sportsbooks.

FanDuel jumped the gun a bit last week, inadvertently posting an Illinois sports betting-related page on its website before anything was confirmed. It was clearly meant as an invisible placeholder, as the URL even included “sportsbook-IL-hidden.” The page was taken down not long after it was published, but it is now back, without the “hidden” part, indicating that the operator is confident that the countdown is on. It is offering a $50 bonus promotion to Illinois customers who sign up early.

Love the one you’re with

It sounds like the launch with Par-A-Dice was not necessarily FanDuel’s first choice for its Illinois entry, but it is the best choice for the operator given the current situation. FanDuel originally planned to launch its sports betting product with Fairmount Park. Fairmount even went so far as to file the paperwork with the Illinois Secretary of State to change its name to “FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing” in January. The advantage this presented for FanDuel was sole billing for the sportsbook.

it looks like its brand will not get top billing

But Fairmount has yet to receive an Illinois Master Sports Betting License, so FanDuel went with “Plan B” to get to market before the football season begins. In August 2018, the company inked a sports betting deal with Boyd Gaming, the owner of Par-a-Dice, hence FanDuel’s pairing with the casino. The downside for FanDuel is that it looks like its brand will not get top billing.

Illinois’ current rules state that casinos can only offer internet and mobile betting “under the track’s or casino’s brand or a brand owned by certain related entities with an 80% ownership interest” and that “displaying multiple brands” is not allowed.

Thus, FanDuel cannot be the brand for Par-A-Dice’s sportsbooks. SportsHandle surmises that it can likely still have its name on the product somewhere, but it would be something along the lines of “Par-A-Dice Sportsbook Powered By FanDuel.”

DraftKings’ Illinois offering is called DraftKings at Casino Queen. It was able to get around the naming restriction by striking a deal with Casino Queen to completely rebrand the casino as a whole. Thus, since the actual casino is now named DraftKings at Casino Queen, its mobile sports betting app can have the DraftKings name.

Online operators avoid the penalty box

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Illinois regulations also impose an 18-month “penalty box” on digital-only sportsbook operators. Thus, sites like DraftKings and FanDuel are technically not permitted to operate mobile and internet sportsbooks in the state for a year and a half after the first license is issued. Both companies, however, have dodged this restriction.

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DraftKings and FanDuel are able to jump into the Illinois market using the casinos’ master licenses

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The casinos are allowed to partner with software providers, which is exactly what Casino Queen and Par-A-Dice did. Because of this, DraftKings and FanDuel are able to jump into the Illinois market using the casinos’ master licenses.

They also saved money. A mobile-only license costs $20m, but a Management Service Provider License, which is what the two sites were granted, costs half that.

The idea behind the penalty box clause was to both give local casinos a headstart over the digital-only giants and penalize DraftKings and FanDuel for operating daily fantasy sports contests in the state illegally.