Gambling on games bill passes Illinois legislature
Tired of playing games for near-meaningless Gamerscore points or leaderboard rankings? If you live in Illinois, you may soon be able to play games for cold hard cash instead.
The Illinois legislature recently passed HB1124, which would allow residents to place bets on "a contest of 2 or more individuals" in "an electronic video game simulating a contest requiring skill, experience, dexterity, and precision." The key clause here is "requiring skill," so traditional luck-based gambling games like blackjack or video poker are out while games "requiring speed and accuracy of response to factual questions," for instance, are in.
While the law is likely intended to allow gambling on the touchscreen games often seen in bars, we can't see why it wouldn't also allow Illinoisans to legally place bets on Halo 2 matches, for instance. The bill still has to be signed into law by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, though, so don't go placing money on your skill with headshots just yet.
[Update: Law of the Game has further analysis of what is and isn't allowed under the bill. We'll take his word over ours since he actually seems to have some legal experience.]
[Via Gaming Today]
