Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, who is also a billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels legacy, recently reported a staggering windfall of gambling winnings on his tax returns.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Pritzker, who is vying for a third term as governor and considered by many a top Democratic candidate to run for president in 2028, revealed in a partial tax disclosure that he and his wife banked more than $10.3 million in 2024, including a whopping $1.425 million from gambling.
Gov. JB Pritzker won $1.4 million in Vegas playing blackjack https://t.co/d8J6sgivzQ via @nbcnews
— Peter Nicholas (@Petereporter) October 16, 2025
Per the Tribune report, Pritzker brought in more than a million dollars playing blackjack at a casino in Las Vegas.
Pritzker is an avid card player whose charitable Chicago Poker Challenge has raised millions of dollars for the Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
The Vegas windfall was a “net number” given wins and losses on one trip, he said. He declined to say what his winning hand was.
“Anybody who’s played cards in a casino, you often play for too long and lose whatever it is you won,” Pritzker told the Associated Press (AP).
“I was fortunate enough to have to leave before that happened.”
Pritzker has a net worth of $3.9 billion, tied for No. 382 on the Forbes 400 list of the nation’s richest people.
However, past financial disclosures show that Pritzker’s past income was far lower (around $3.2 million in 2023, $2.3 million in 2022).
Now many are raising eyebrows at the sudden eight-figure windfall.
Previous reports found that Pritzker aggressively expanded the gambling sector while profiting from the industry himself through his hotel and hospitality connections.
Pritzker was a key figure in Illinois’ gambling reforms in 2019.
Shortly after taking office, Pritzker pushed through a massive infrastructure bill of roughly $45 billion in major gaming expansions, including legalization of sports betting, six new casinos, and casino/racetrack gaming at many venues.
At the time, his legislation was framed as a way to reclaim gambling dollars leaving the state, create jobs, and pad public revenue.
According to reports, Pritzker frequently toured racetracks, made public pitches at venues like Fairmount Park, and positioned the law as a lifeline to rescue struggling horse racing communities, even promising that legal gaming would help reenergize industries fading under competition.
The disclosure noted that $4.5 million in state taxes and $30.2 million in federal taxes were paid by the trusts benefiting him, an arrangement Pritzker says is intended to shelter against conflicts of interest.
Pritzker himself passed his investment control to an independent trustee in 2018, calling it a “blind trust.”
However, insiders believe that Pritzker’s future political ambitions could be hurt by his personal ties to gambling expansion coupled with his personal windfall from the industry.
While Pritzker’s financial disclosures appear to be fully transparent, it also raises serious eyebrows amongst Illinois residents as Pritzker is also locked in a battle with President Donald Trump over the use of National Guard troops being deployed to the state to battle crime in Chicago.
Trump has threatened for weeks to send troops to Chicago as part of a crime-fighting and immigration effort, which Democrats including Pritzker have slammed.
Last week, Illinois sued in an attempt to prevent the White House from deploying federalized troops to Chicago.