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Gov. JB Pritzker won $1.4 million playing blackjack in Las Vegas: ‘I was incredibly lucky’
The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 16, 2025 | Mitchell Armentrout

Posted on 10/16/2025 9:37:47 PM PDT by PBRCat

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Miscellaneous; US: Illinois; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: bribery; cheating; fattyfartbuckle; fixedgames; gambling; imshocked; lasvegas; mitchellarmentrout; nothingupmysleeve; pritzker; shockeditellyou
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Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Zero doubles down on stupid while Chicago and Illinois burn to the ground.

1 posted on 10/16/2025 9:37:47 PM PDT by PBRCat
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To: PBRCat
Sure, Governor Arbuckle...


2 posted on 10/16/2025 9:41:39 PM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: PBRCat

How much did it cost to win that much money? 🙄


3 posted on 10/16/2025 9:41:52 PM PDT by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: PBRCat

Sounds like a great way to launder money.


4 posted on 10/16/2025 9:44:49 PM PDT by bray (It's not racist to be racist against races the DNC hates.)
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To: PBRCat

Dollars to doughnuts, these “gambling winnings” are a money-laundered bribe from someone to Fats.


5 posted on 10/16/2025 9:45:06 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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6 posted on 10/16/2025 9:50:34 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is goings to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: irishjuggler

Sounds right to me. Bribes indeed unless there is video of him in LV raking in the bucks.


7 posted on 10/16/2025 10:08:06 PM PDT by Veto! (Trump is Superman)
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To: kiryandil

Blackjack replaces hillary’s cattle futures?


8 posted on 10/16/2025 10:13:40 PM PDT by rolling_stone (e)
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To: irishjuggler
#5: "Dollars to doughnuts, these “gambling winnings” are a money-laundered bribe from someone to Fats."

THIS. Bingo.

9 posted on 10/16/2025 10:18:15 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: PBRCat

This sounds very fishy, and risky. At his best he is psycho gambler and should not be near power. At the worst his potential for corruption is now off the charts.
He needs to be audited down to his toes if he can find them.

Was this a way to launder pay-offs?

Don’t trust him at all.


10 posted on 10/16/2025 10:22:55 PM PDT by Titus-Maximus (Tthe trouble with socialism is that you soon run out of other people's zoo animals to eat.)
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To: rolling_stone

Yes - the casino staff TOTALLY didn’t notice that the governor of fricking Illinois was killing it on their tables.


11 posted on 10/16/2025 10:25:20 PM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: bray
Sounds like a great way to launder money.

This stinks. If he were a very skilled Black Jake player on a no limits table this is possible but doubtful. If he has a history of playing no limits tables perhaps this is true. I would very much like to see his history of gambling on the tables of black jack. A man that wins millions on black jack has a history of losing the same in the past.

As mentioned, this stinks.

I would also be much interested in seeing his gambling habits on other games in the casinos. It all stinks. .

12 posted on 10/16/2025 11:01:19 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, oilfield roughneck, drilling fluid tech, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, MAGA)
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To: cpdiii

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4346874/posts?page=11#11


13 posted on 10/16/2025 11:02:57 PM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: bray

Let’s be honest, it’s what Vegas and other casinos have always been about.


14 posted on 10/16/2025 11:05:43 PM PDT by Frank Drebin (And don't ever let me catch you guys in America!)
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To: cpdiii

Maybe he enters games with people who want favors and contracts. Fold for favors. Luck has nothing to do with it.


15 posted on 10/17/2025 12:12:12 AM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: PBRCat

Pritzker at gambling.
Hillary at cattle futures


16 posted on 10/17/2025 12:27:17 AM PDT by South Dakota (Vance / Trump...2028 )
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To: FoxInSocks

Just like bidding on who gets the contract.

Gov. “I’ll raise another $250,000...”


17 posted on 10/17/2025 12:37:56 AM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant - Never Fearful)
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To: PBRCat

Pelosi was “incredibly lucky” re stock market trades to. And I believe Pritzker as much as I believe it abt Pelosi


18 posted on 10/17/2025 1:11:55 AM PDT by Singermom
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To: PBRCat

Incredibly lucky? No, anyone who bets that kind of money on gambling is ‘incredibly’ unstable.


19 posted on 10/17/2025 1:39:23 AM PDT by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man, but it's ok---- I wasn't married to it.)
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To: PBRCat

I thought you had to pay taxes at the time you won.


20 posted on 10/17/2025 1:59:10 AM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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