Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Claims He Got ‘Lucky’ Winning $1.4 Million Playing Blackjack in Vegas
“I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends. I was incredibly lucky. You have to be to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere — it was in Las Vegas — and I like to play cards”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker laughed and smiled this week as he was asked about certain details in his latest tax filing, including the claim that he won $1.4 million playing Blackjack in Las Vegas while on vacation.
The governor chalked his good fortune up to being “lucky.”
NBC News reports:
Gov. JB Pritzker won $1.4 million in Vegas playing blackjack
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire, took home $1.4 million in winnings after playing blackjack at a casino in Las Vegas last year, according to a copy of his new tax filing.
Pritzker, who is seeking a third term in office and is on the 2028 short list, reported the earnings in his latest tax filing after he played the card game while on a vacation with his wife and some friends, a Pritzker spokesperson said Thursday.
The governor will be donating the money to charity, according to his campaign.
“I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends. I was incredibly lucky. You have to be to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere — it was in Las Vegas — and I like to play cards,” Pritzker told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
The governor apparently also likes to play poker, according to his campaign, and founded a charity poker tournament.
Pritzker and his wife, MK, reported a total income of $10.6 million in 2024.
Gee, he sure is lucky.
JB Pritzker says he won $1.4M on one trip at a Las Vegas casino playing Blackjack last year: “I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends, I was incredibly lucky.” pic.twitter.com/UYYA3PTPpV
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 16, 2025
The FOX Business Network has a few more details:
Under Pritzker, who first took office in 2019, gambling has expanded significantly across the Blue State. He signed legislation legalizing sports betting and authorized six new casinos, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
His wealth stems from the Hyatt Hotels Corp chain family fortune, according to Forbes.
The Pritzker family has long had ties to the casino industry, and before being elected as governor, JB Pritzker invested in a company with a 1% stake in Elgin’s Grand Victoria Casino. His assets have since been in a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Oh.
I can’t help but think of the scene in ‘Casino’ where Robert De Niro’s character says, “In the end, we get it all.”
Featured image via Twitter/X video.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Money laundering would be the presumption, a payoff turned into legitimate winnings. The casino takes a cut for the service, is the usual arrangement.
This is a nothing story. The man is incredibly wealthy and probably didn’t bother to keep track of the gambling losses that he was entitled to deduct against this.
Technically correct – the best kind of correct.
However – the IRS rules for doing this are so stringent that in reality almost no gambler does it.
You must have receipts or other documentation for each and every losing bet you wish to claim – which in Real World ™ just doesn’t happen.
I recall an IRS investigation of a man who was renting out a box of losing racetrack tickets to gamblers under audit. The tell was footprints appearing on some of the tickets.
Not true (the in reality part). I and a number of friends have had to report winnings and claim losses to offset them. Any serious professional gambler keeps careful records of bets, or at least session outcomes, for both business and tax purposes. We even have an accountant who specializes in in gambling tax issues.
The governor – not being a “professional” gambler – won’t have jumped thru all the required IRS hoops. Also – the problem isn’t wether or not he documents his gambling loses – like almost no one does – but wether or not his Big Win was entirely due to Luck or instead due to “Luck”.
There is no mention that he violated any tax law, nor is there any indication that he wrote off losses to offset winnings. If he had documented losses (and the casino knows exactly how much he won or lost at each session), there is nothing wrong in declaring them. BTW, the casino is required to withhold 24% of the winnings and report them to the IRS. Any winnings over $600 are subject to this rule. He was probably playing in a private room with bet limits in the six figures.
What a mess your mind is. You are shifting ground, backing away from your original assertions and spewing irrelevant and well known facts.
Whitey Bulger winning the Mass lottery was news. A gambling billionaire winning a mill at a high stakes black jack table is not. I wager he is behind in his lifetime gambling. A billionaire who has a family office of dozens investing his personal fortune doesn’t run bribes through Vegas. Leave that to the Bidens..
Agreed. Him winning $1.4 million given his existing wealth is like a normal person winning a ‘free small drink’ from McDonald’s Monopoly.
He did donate the $1.4 million to charity – however….
A quick google estimates that – assuming an income that places him in the 37% fed income bracket (a safe assumption given how rich he is) – that can save him 1/2 a million in taxes owed.
Now that doesn’t mean he comes out financially ahead of than if he had just kept the $1.4 million – but if you assume it’s a money-laundered bribe by the casino industry (he is a VERY casino-friendly governor, coincidently) – it’s an entirely and technically legal way to funnel 37% of the $1.4 million to him at an overhead cost (to the casinos) of the other 63%.
It may stink like a week-old dead fish – but lacking definitive proof that the winnings were purposely given up – he’s legally untouchable.
OC if it was Trump in the same situation I’m suspect a Leticia James wanna-be prosecutor could come up with a few groundbreaking novel legal arguments to charge him anyway. Just saying.
Arrant nonsense.
How so?
He COULD be entirely innocent and his Big Win – from an industry he’s known to be very very friendly with in his official office – entirely due to chance.
But it certainly looks at the least – suspicious.
The chances of winning more than a million at a casino table by pure luck and skill are laughably minuscule. The chances of ALSO being someone who’s a “friend” of the casino industry makes it more so.
Do you disagree about how unlikely the combo is?
You are a fool. Whales win 7 figures all the time. In 1997 Terry Packer won over $40,0000,000 at MGM’s black Jack table in an hour. You fail to mention his tax increased by the same 37 percent of the $1.4 million before it was reduced by the same amount due to the charitable deduction. Also, black Jack is not pure luck. The odds are better than in other games and card counters are thrown out because they can beat the house.
A lot of tinfoil hat people on this website.
EHH, Statistics and Probability Are Your Fiend.
“Whales win 7 figures all the time” is BTP.
Lotto players also “win 7 figures all the time”.
That doesn’t mean the vast majority of Lotto players – and “Whales” –
do NOT “win 7 figures all the time”.
Otherwise Casinos – and State Lottos – wouldn’t be the cash cows they are,
They’re both “a tax upon the less bright among us” –
just sometimes in different tax brackets.
Are you really this thick? Whales (Asian billionaires, American hotel chain tycoons) have a pot big enough to match the house’s and in a game of relatively good odds requiring skill, will have swings of 7 figure gains and losses. This is a regular occurrence in which the house indeed comes out ahead after the dust settles. To compare this with a wage earner buying a lottery ticket is idiocy. Suggesting an inveterate, gambling billionaire is the unwitting recipient of a goodwill laundered bribe is further idiocy.
Stop beclowning yourself. This story was published because the Governor is a despicable man and people resent his wealth.
Finally, so even you can understand. The house has only a o.5 % edge in blackjack against a skilled gambler. Depending on the state, the odds of winning the lottery are between 1 in 14 million and 1 in 300 million.
Putting aside your argument-by-insult, the odds are ALWAYS in the house’s favor – otherwise casinos (and State Lottos) wouldn’t be (and stay) in business.
If the typical “Whale” would / could play for only a (say) dozen hands at (say) $100k stakes each play i will grant you a less than 1% house “edge” could see him often (as you say) walking away with a 7 figure gain.
However….. Casinos – for just that reason – have table limits.
Usually $5-10k I understand, rarely but up to $50k.
At typical 3:2 payouts that forces the player to usually have to grind to get to a (say) million dollars to the good. The Casinos love love love players having to grind.
Your typical “Whale” – or any regular player with the gambling bug – does NOT play a short game – he’ll sit and play until he’s tired or broke – chasing the adrenaline and endorphin high. If he’s lucky (or smart) he’ll quit while ahead. Casinos wouldn’t survive if gamblers were smart.
The odds of winning a coin toss 7 times in a row is 1 in 128 I believe.
That 1% edge the house has in blackjack is quite important over time.
Calculation breakdown Probability of winning an individual hand: Assuming perfect play, the probability of winning a single hand is roughly 42.4%. Probability of winning seven in a row: To find the probability of winning seven hands consecutively, you multiply the individual win probability by itself seven times. Mathematical representation: (0.424^{7}approx 0.0046). Percentage: This translates to about 0.46%. Important considerations Fair play: This calculation assumes a fair game with a standard setup. Perfect play: The odds are based on a player using perfect basic strategy, which can improve winning probabilities but does not guarantee a win. Varying odds: Actual odds can vary based on the number of decks used, the specific rules of the game, and the player’s skill level.
Governor Toilets’ winnings were $1.4 million gross, but his actual profit after his losses are unknown.
Gamblers must report their gross gaming winnings as a part of their adjusted gross income.
Gamblers may offset their gains with losses reported as an itemized deduction on Schedule A.
Toilets did not disclose his Form 1040, schedule A.
The total of his itemized deduction shown on line 12 of his form 1040 is $4.7 million.
https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/Pritzker%202024%20Federal%20Return.pdf
I am curious how much of the $4.7 million is gambling losses.
Who cares? If the entire $4.7 million is gambling losses that means he had an additional $3.3 million in gambling winnings and he is a very generous man, because in that case, the $1.4 million given to charity was not funded by his winnings.
This is nonsense, because you’re double-counting the deduction.
The $1.4 million goes to charity. Pritzker thus keeps none of it, and therefore pays no taxes on it. His tax bill and his after-tax income are exactly the same as they would be had he never won it in the first place. All he gets out of his win is the satisfaction of seeing that money going to a cause he likes.
Sure are a lot of Democrats pimpin’ their ill-gotten gains under the guise of total ignorance while the plebes await Ed McMahon to show up….wait, nevermind!
JB’s statement here arrives with all the credibility of every other statement JB has made. Zero.
Democrats who on the exterior are dumber than rocks seem to have amazing hidden talents for stock picking, gambling and in Hunter Biden’s case…painting at levels few others have even achieved.
Industrial maintenance has a common nickname for such people…D Rock. They are dumb as a rock.
If we had “journalists” who weren’t simply scribes for the elites, we might get someone to ask some questions. “What casino, Mr. Governor?” “Perhaps a casino company that does business in Illinois?” “How much did you lose if the net was $1.4 million?” “That makes you a pretty high roller. What comps did you get?” The Governor is a Whale (in every sense of the term) and, while Vegas isn’t throwing out comps like they used to, a guy worth billions who likes to gamble (and incidentally happens to be able to make the casino business more lucrative in Illinois) is going to be treated very, very well. Can you say, “Conflict of interest?”
So apparently blackjack is better than cattle futures? Didn’t expect that.
If Clinton had been an experienced trader in cattle futures, and had one day made a $55K profit, no one would have raised an eyebrow. The whole point of the scandal is that she knew nothing about cattle futures, had never traded before and never traded again, her broker picked her buys and sells for her, and the same broker made a loss on his own account that day. In other words what happened is that he traded all day on his own account, and at the end of the day he assigned $55K worth of winning trades to her account and a corresponding number of losing trades to his own. Obviously he wouldn’t do that if he hadn’t received something of value greater than $55K from Clinton’s husband the governor.
In Vegas, such high rollers are called “whales”….and boy does this fit. Considering his “earned” wealth… a non-story. . I thought all billionaires were harmful to ordinary Dems?
Why would you think that? Most billionaires seem to be Dems
Of course you did, Porky… of course you did.
not a or the problem
its your support of the welfare state which demeans people under the guise of helping them
its the financial raping of the innocent that is the problem to fund your agenda
What’s the issue? He won a small (for him) pile of money. He paid the necessary tax on it, and waddled back to buffet. Unless he dined and dashed, I don’t see how this is our business.
A billionaire cruises into Vegas and plays high stakes blackjack winning a million bucks. There is no story here.