Vice Pays Off in the Prairie State in ’24 in the BILLIONS

A community, town, county, state or country has to wrestle with the morality of monetizing vice. The state of Illinois decided to monetize gambling for the state years ago in the form of the lottery. Then casino gambling and subsequently sports gambling.

You could argue that the country legalized the vice of drinking alcohol with the repeal of prohibition in 1933. But in Illinois there was a strong underground booze network and market. The people wanted to drink legally and the government decided if they were going to anyway, Uncle Sam should profit from it. States then took their cut too.

Illinois took the states temperature for marijuana in the 20 teens, legalizing medicinal marijuana in 2013 then voting to make recreational marijuana legal in 2019.

Growing up in Illinois the regular guy perspective you’d hear was “If they (the state) would legalize weed all our financial problems would end.” This was an oversimplification. Yes, revenue would be come in, true enough. But that view from the regular guy showed that he had no idea how bad the state of Illinois finances and spending were.

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Related: Uh-Oh Illinois Marijuana Tax Money Starts Slipping

Politicians like to spend money. When the lottery money came in waves it was promised for education. It did go there, but the money that was previously there got smoothed to other areas. The Springfield shell game was being employed.

The 21^st century vice money is rolling. Not enough to fix everything though. Seriously, the over $2 billion in cannabis sales for 2024 and the $1.7 billion in tax revenue from gaming is nice for the state but it barely makes a dent in unfunded liabilities in that state that sit at close to $150 billion.

Perhaps that’s why Illinois recently began conversations in Springfield about legalizing “Sex work”

Related: Illinois Politicians Go There - Want to Legalize Sex Work

With the states past shell gaming of lottery money Illinois tax payers need to keep a keen eye on how the state applies the money that has come in from cannabis and gambling this past year. What was promised and what (if anything) was re-allocated to other areas.