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Gambling self-exclusion in Illinois

Self-exclusion in Illinois: you need two separate enrollments. Illinois: casinos and sports wagering statewide Self-Exclusion Program, run by the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB). First step: Enroll in person at any Illinois casino's IGB office. It continues until a removal is granted. Illinois Lottery Voluntary Self-Exclusion Program (VSEP), run by the Illinois Department of the Lottery. First step: Mail the signed, notarized agreement to the Lottery's Claims Unit. It continues until a removal is granted. None substitutes for another, and this is not everything in Illinois.

Reviewed 2026-09-24 against official sources. Every fact below links to the agency that published it. How we check facts.

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We list what we've confirmed. If a casino isn't here, we haven't found its program yet. That doesn't mean it has none.

Self-exclusion programs in Illinois 2

Compare what each program blocks and how to sign up. Click any program name for the full step-by-step instructions, official forms, and sources.

Asking a program for a form or an answer does not enroll you.

Self-exclusion programs in Illinois
ProgramHow you enrollWhat it blocksHow long it lastsSources
Getting inBettingCredit, compsOnlineMail
Illinois Lottery Voluntary Self-Exclusion Program (VSEP)State regulator Run by Illinois Department of the Lottery.By mail By phone

Mail the signed, notarized agreement to the Lottery's Claims Unit.

Official form (Revised effective 8-28-2008)

ConfirmedConfirmedConfirmedConfirmedConfirmedUntil a removal is approved

Before you count on it. This is a separate list run by the Illinois Lottery -- it is not the same as, and does not connect to, the IGB's casino/sports-wagering Self-Exclusion Program. It covers Lottery gaming products; it does not cover casinos, sports wagering, video gaming terminals, racing, or charitable gaming. Notarization is required -- an unnotarized agreement will not be accepted. You are not removed automatically when your chosen term ends; you stay on the list until you request removal (after a 5-year minimum) and the Lottery approves it. The Lottery's website blocks some automated downloads. If the form link won't open for you, get a paper copy in person or by mail from a Lottery office. Check what you get: the Lottery's reply to us called its attachment 'the attached form' and named it SelfExclusionRules.pdf. The file of that name on the Lottery's website is the rule text, not the agreement. The document you notarize is headed 'Self-Exclusion from Play and Prize Payment Agreement.' Mail it to the Claims Unit, MC5-915. The Lottery wrote to us on 2026-10-08 that 'Claims Unit at MC5-915 is the correct/current location,' and the same reply pasted the address off its website, 'Attention: Legal Section, 101 W. Jefferson, MC5-950,' directly under that sentence. Call 1-800-252-1775 and ask which mail code before you send it. That number also lets you exclude yourself from online Lottery play only, for a minimum of 5 years. A call covers online play. For in-store play, you need the notarized agreement. Whether non-Illinois residents can enroll is not established. Getting, filling out, or notarizing the form does not exclude you, and delivering it is a submission, not a confirmed enrollment. The Lottery does not publish how or when it confirms enrollment, so keep a copy and write down the date.

Illinois: casinos and sports wagering statewide Self-Exclusion ProgramState regulator Run by Illinois Gaming Board (IGB).In person

Enroll in person at any Illinois casino's IGB office.

Program page

ConfirmedConfirmedConfirmedConfirmedConfirmedUntil a removal is approved

Sign up for the longest exclusion time you can. Future you will thank you.

Before you count on it. This covers Illinois casinos and sports wagering (retail, online and mobile) only. It does not cover video gaming terminals -- Illinois's biggest gambling product by machine count -- pari-mutuel racing, or charitable gaming; no self-exclusion mechanism was found for any of them. Illinois has no tribal casinos. A 2026 law, in effect since June 16, 2026, adds self-exclusion for fantasy contests, but IGB's own program pages do not mention it yet, so whether you can currently self-exclude from fantasy contests here is unconfirmed. Enrollment lasts a minimum of 5 years up to a lifetime, with no way to shorten it once you are in; removal after 5 years requires a written request with treatment documentation, and a denial can be appealed within 10 days. Visiting an IGB office or reading this page does not enroll you -- only completing the in-person request does.

Gambling types in Illinois

One self-exclusion list rarely blocks every kind of gambling. Here is what we found for each type of gambling in this state.

What we found for each gambling type in Illinois
Gambling typeWhat we foundSources
tribal casinosOfficial sources don't settle it
2 sources
online casino / iGamingOfficial sources don't settle it
1 source
skill games — video gaming terminals (VGTs)Official sources don't settle it
2 sources
racing/pari-mutuel — racing / pari-mutuel (incl. advance deposit wagering)Official sources don't settle it
2 sources
charitable/bingo — bingo, charitable games and pull tabsNot covered by a program listed hereWhat we checked: The two programs listed here. The Gaming Board's Self-Exclusion Program is made under the Illinois Gambling Act, which states it does not apply to bingo, charitable games or pull tabs, and the Lottery's program covers Lottery products. Both categories are licensed by the Department of Revenue, whose own exclusion practice was not established.
Why

Neither Illinois list reaches charitable gaming, and the reason is in the statute the Gaming Board's program is built on. The Illinois Gambling Act says of itself: "This Act does not apply to the pari-mutuel system of wagering ... lottery games authorized under the Illinois Lottery Law, bingo authorized under the Bingo License and Tax Act, charitable games authorized under the Charitable Games Act or pull tabs and jar games conducted under the Illinois Pull Tabs and Jar Games Act." The Self-Exclusion Program exists only in rules made under that Act, and the rule itself reaches the area "within the admission turnstiles of any riverboat gaming operation". Bingo, charitable games and pull tabs are licensed by the Department of Revenue instead, whose forms are licenses and tax returns with no player-exclusion form among them, and whose statutes ask a licensed organization for one thing only: post problem-gambling signage at the entrances. Whether the Department of Revenue or any individual licensed organization would honor a request of its own was not established.

5 sources
card roomsNo program foundWhat we checked: Illinois has no standalone commercial card-room or poker-room license category: poker exists only as a casino table game under the Illinois Gambling Act, inside the Gaming Board's self-exclusion, or as a Department of Revenue charitable game. Municipal tolerance of private social play was not examined.
Why

Illinois licenses no card room. The Criminal Code makes playing a game of chance or skill for money an offense unless it is one of sixteen listed exceptions, and that list is the whole of lawful Illinois gambling: bingo, raffles and poker runs, charitable games, pull tabs, Gambling Act games, video gaming terminals at named licensed establishments, sports wagering, fantasy contests and the rest. No card room, poker room or social-card item appears in it. Keeping a place for gambling other than as the Gambling Act, the Sports Wagering Act or the Video Gaming Act allows is itself an offense. Poker is lawful in Illinois in two places only: as a table game inside a licensed casino, which the Gaming Board's self-exclusion already covers, and as one of the games a licensed charity may run under the Charitable Games Act, which the entry above covers. A "poker run" in Illinois law is not poker — it is a traveling prize event licensed by a county.

4 sources
skill games — cash-paying skill games, as a category distinct from video gaming terminalsNo program foundWhat we checked: Illinois recognizes no licensed cash-paying skill-game category distinct from a video gaming terminal: skill played for money is gambling unless an exception in 720 ILCS 5/28-1(b) applies, and every skill-device carve-out in the gambling-device definition awards no money. Video gaming terminals are listed separately above.
Why

Illinois has no licensed skill-game category. The Criminal Code puts skill inside the offense itself — a person commits gambling when they knowingly play "a game of chance or skill for money or other thing of value" unless an exception applies — and none of the sixteen exceptions is a skill game. The gambling-device definition likewise covers a device taking money "on chance or skill", and every machine it lets out pays no money: a replay-only amusement device that "returns to the player thereof no money, property, or right to receive money or property", a crane game awarding merchandise worth up to $25, a redemption machine where "Only merchandise prizes are awarded", and video gaming terminals at establishments licensed under the Video Gaming Act. Illinois treats skill as a property of a video gaming terminal rather than a category beside it: the Video Gaming Act requires that "Video gaming terminals that may be affected by skill must meet this standard when using a method of play that will provide the greatest return to the player over a period of continuous play." Whether a cash-paying machine is in fact sitting in an Illinois shop is a question about enforcement, not about what the law licenses.

3 sources
fantasy/prediction — fantasy contests and prediction marketsOfficial sources don't settle it
5 sources
How we checked

These are the kinds of gambling we checked in Illinois. Five are still unresolved because official sources don't settle them.

Illinois has two separate statewide self-exclusion lists, run by two different agencies. The Illinois Gaming Board's Self-Exclusion Program (SEP) has run since 2002. It covers all Illinois casinos and, since 2019, retail and online/mobile sports betting, and it is open to people from outside Illinois where applicable law allows. A 2026 law (Public Act 104-0468), in effect since June 16, 2026, adds fantasy contests to the program, but the Board's program and FAQ pages don't mention it yet, so we can't confirm that enrolling today reaches fantasy contests. The Illinois Lottery runs its own Voluntary Self-Exclusion Program (VSEP), unrelated to the Gaming Board's. We don't know whether people from outside Illinois can use it. Video gaming terminals, Illinois's biggest gambling product by machine count, sit in bars, restaurants and truck stops. We found no self-exclusion mechanism for them in the Video Gaming Act, the Board's Video FAQ or the technical standards, and a widely repeated claim that they require a driver's-license self-exclusion check appears in none of those. We found no tribal gaming in Illinois. We found no exclusion mechanism for pari-mutuel racing or charitable gaming on the regulators' pages we read, though we didn't search them exhaustively. We checked the official sources linked on this page, not every gambling option in the state.

How Illinois' programs fit together

Illinois has two separate self-exclusion lists, one from the Gaming Board and one from the Lottery, and signing up for one doesn't put you on the other.

What we know about each one

The Gaming Board's Self-Exclusion Program is signed in person and covers the casinos and sports betting. The Lottery runs its own notarized agreement, and a phone call to 1-800-252-1775 excludes you from online Lottery play only. Neither reaches the other's games. A 2026 law puts fantasy contests into the Gaming Board's program, but the Board has published no rule, form or notice for it yet, so we can't confirm that enrolling today reaches them. Signing up for both still doesn't cover every way to gamble in the state.

Official Illinois links and forms

These are the primary sources this page is built from: agency program pages, statutes, regulations and the forms themselves. How we check facts explains what each label means.