Bars, restaurants and other establishments offering video gambling in Illinois were burglarized 473 times in 2025 — an alarming rise from the prior year, when there were 358 incidents.
Not even six months into 2026, there already have been more than 500 burglaries — signaling what could be a very ugly year crimewise at local gaming parlors.
“They gotta figure something out because these guys are cleaning up,” says a gambling cafe operator who asked not to be named, and whose suburban business was hit by thieves in May. “They’re doing four, five places a night.”
Some days saw even more…
The Illinois Gaming Board, the regulatory agency overseeing casinos, sports betting and video gambling, released records in response to a Chicago Sun-Times request showing 453 break-ins from Jan. 1 to June 16.
