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Chicago area bookies can be found throughout the city and suburban areas. Sports bars and pool halls are especially popular with Chicago, Illinois bookies.
Chicago is a big sports town with home teams that include the NFL Bears, two Major League Baseball teams – the Cubs and White Sox, the NBA Bulls and a very good NHL team that won the Stanley Cup two years ago and played in the Stanley Cup Final this year but lost.
Popular sports bars where you will find your local Chicago area bookie include The Field House, Kaseys Tavern, Clover and the more upscale Fatpour Tap Works.
Sports betting and bookmaking are both considered misdemeanors in the state of Illinois but Chicago area bookies, often tied to organized crime families, have long been a target of local authorities.
Criminal defense attorney Robert Cooley once disclosed that former disgraced Mayor of Chicago, Rod Blagojevich, acted as a bookmaker prior to getting into politics and he was said to have paid the Chicago mob to operate.
But in the shadow of these Mob-tied bookmaking establishments we have a bunch of little guys that utlize a whole host of per head call centers and software companies operating offshore that fully manage the bookie’s clientele by grading and keeping track of bets in addition to providing 24/7 customer support and customized Web betting.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
