SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Illinois House is considering a proposal to allow sports betting on Illinois college and university sports teams, but the idea is getting pushback from the University of Illinois.
University of Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman told the Illinois House Executive Committee Wednesday he’s against allowing betting on his school’s teams and those of other colleges and universities. He’s worried about the online harassment some student-athletes get from gamblers.
But, State Rep. Mike Zalewski told WBBM Newsradio it’s time to change the law to keep up with Iowa and Indiana and keep Illinois gamblers from crossing state lines to place their bets.
"If he felt like there was harassment in place or a student-athlete had suffered some kind of emotional or verbal abuse, we would create a process by which he could file a petition with the Gaming Board to halt those bets until the Gaming Board could do an investigation," Zalewski said.
Zalewski added that, "I’m not unsympathetic to [the concern that student-athletes could be harassed online by gamblers]. I would simply say that, we don’t have the ability to restrict what Indiana and Iowa does so our better bet is to have a highly regulated marketplace where, if something like this is happening, we can immediately take action."
The state lawmaker said the provision forbidding betting on state college sports teams was put in two years ago to get the gambling expansion law passed.
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