Video gaming questions from bar and restaurant owners

Video gaming terminals are the slot-style machines you see in Illinois bars, restaurants and truck stops. The Illinois Video Gaming Act (230 ILCS 40) allows them, and the Illinois Gaming Board licenses every location, every terminal operator and every terminal before a machine goes in (230 ILCS 40/35(a)). The Act splits the business into two licensed jobs: you hold the location license and run the room, and a terminal operator, the company licensed to own, service and maintain the terminals (230 ILCS 40/5), runs the machines.

A licensed establishment under the Act is a retail business that serves alcohol for consumption on the premises. The Act also covers truck stops and the meeting places of chartered fraternal and veterans organizations (230 ILCS 40/5). A package-goods store does not qualify, because nothing is consumed on site. Chicago narrows it further: the City's requirements page names the Tavern and Consumption on Premises - Incidental Activity liquor licenses.

Up to six at a bar, restaurant, fraternal or veterans location; a large truck stop may have up to ten (230 ILCS 40/25(e)). Six is the ceiling whatever your square footage or which operator you choose, so the real question is how many of those six fit your room and where they go.

Yes. Any municipality may pass an ordinance prohibiting video gaming inside its limits (230 ILCS 40/27), and the Illinois Gaming Board publishes the list of places that have. Chicago used that authority for years and lifted its ban in the 2026 budget. Many towns that allow video gaming also add a local license and fee of their own, so the rules one town over can differ from yours.

Players must be 21 or older; no licensee may let anyone under 21 use a terminal (230 ILCS 40/40). Terminals may be played only during your legal hours for serving alcohol (230 ILCS 40/35(b)). Your staff are the ones who see the room, so the age rule is part of running it day to day.

Three, each resting on the one before. A current liquor license for consumption on the premises, which the gaming license sits on. A video gaming location license from the Illinois Gaming Board. And, where your municipality requires one, a local video gaming license; in Chicago that is the City's Video Gaming Location License under Chapter 4-155 of the Municipal Code. Separately, the terminals are placed under a written use agreement between you and a licensed terminal operator (230 ILCS 40/25(e)).

You apply online to the Illinois Gaming Board. Its instructions list a nonrefundable $100 application fee, fingerprints from the people with an ownership interest and the location's video gaming manager and officers, and a continuing duty to report changes such as a change of ownership. If the Board finds the applicant suitable, it asks for a $100 annual license fee and then issues the license. The Board warns that any misrepresentation or omission is grounds for denial, so complete answers matter more than fast ones.

Chicago has its own Video Gaming Location License, issued by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The City's requirements: an Illinois Gaming Board license first, a Tavern or Consumption on Premises - Incidental Activity liquor license (package-goods licensees cannot apply), a floor plan, the use agreement, and proof of lease or ownership, with a maximum of six machines. The state will not let a Chicago location go live until it holds the City license. Where the City's process stands is in the dated status box on this page.

Start with the Illinois Gaming Board's list of municipalities that prohibit video gaming; if your town is on it, nobody can place terminals there until the town changes its ordinance. Where video gaming is allowed, many towns add a local license and annual fee, and the amounts and paperwork vary from one town hall to the next. Unincorporated Cook County is one example: the County's own video gaming license requires the state license first, a $500 application fee, a $1,000 license fee per terminal each year, a floor plan, the operator agreement, and a building permit for the installation.

Nobody can honestly promise you a date. The Gaming Board sets its own pace for background review, and a town or the City sets its own for the local license. What you control is how complete your application is when it goes in. PSG's licensing team explains the application process and coordinates the information and steps needed to move forward.

A conversation about your location and your goals first. From there, in the order a new location meets them: the licensing team walks you through the state application and any local one, gaming-area planning looks at your space, equipment options and layout, and once the licenses are issued, the terminals go in under your use agreement and your account manager and the service team take over day to day. Talking to PSG does not commit you to anything.

The Gaming Board sets minimum standards: a use agreement may run no longer than eight years, may not renew automatically without a cancellation step, may be assigned only from one licensed operator to another, must state that no inducement was offered or accepted, and must release the location if the operator loses its license (11 Ill. Adm. Code 1800.320). Read the term, the renewal language and the exit conditions before you sign with anyone, and ask questions about any of it first.

Your current use agreement governs your terminals until it ends on its own terms. If the location is licensed, the first agreement signed controls over any later one, and the Board decides disputes between overlapping agreements (11 Ill. Adm. Code 1800.320). Know your agreement's end date and its renewal and cancellation language. If you want to understand what a change would involve when that date comes, PSG can walk through how the rules work.

The space, the power and a gaming area your staff can see, plus the floor plan the licenses ask for. Because terminals may be played only by people 21 and older and only during your liquor hours (230 ILCS 40/40, 40/35(b)), the area needs to sit where your staff can watch it. PSG's gaming-area planning covers the layout, so the machines fit the room and the room stays comfortable for guests.

Every licensed location and every operator works under the same age and hours rules. The National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER is free and confidential, and the Illinois Gaming Board runs a voluntary Self-Exclusion Program. PSG's marketing support uses approved campaigns and promotional materials.