Rest assured that Gov. JB Pritzker’s $1.4 million gambling win last year didn’t snatch away state tax revenue from any Illinois casino.
The billionaire Democrat’s surprise windfall came from Las Vegas blackjack tables, Pritzker said Thursday, a day after his hot streak was revealed in 2024 income tax returns released by his political campaign.
“I was incredibly lucky,” a smiling Pritzker said while being quizzed by reporters on his jackpot during an otherwise somber Loop press conference about the potential deployment of troops in Chicago. “You have to be to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere.”
Fortune found the governor during a Sin City vacation with first lady MK Pritzker and friends last year, he said.
The $1,425,000 that helped boost their federal adjusted gross income to nearly $10.7 million was “a net number,” according to the governor, who wouldn’t say just how much cash he was throwing around to finish that far ahead. High-roller rooms on the Vegas Strip can see hands played for $100,000 or more.
“I like to play cards,” Pritzker added. “Anybody who’s played cards in a casino knows that you often play for too long and lose whatever it is that you’ve won. I was fortunate enough to have to leave before that happened.”
His campaign said the money would be donated to charity. Pritzker founded the charitable Chicago Poker challenge that has raised millions for the Holocaust Museum he helped open in Skokie.
“I had fun doing it, and I encourage people to come to the state of Illinois and gamble in our casinos here. We have some really lovely places to go,” said Pritzker, who during his first term signed the law that legalized sports betting in the state and authorized six new houses of chance. Illinois casinos raked in $1.8 billion last fiscal year.
Pritzker, a Hyatt hotel heir with an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion, previously invested in a company that had a 1% stake in Elgin’s Grand Victoria Casino. The governor still has a stake in Niagara Casino Group, according to a statement of economic interest filed with the state earlier this year.
Pritzker put his investments in a blind trust when he first took office in 2019. He’s seeking a third term as governor next year and is widely expected to run for president in 2028.