Governor Pritzker’s Gambling Profits or Mobster Payoff?

“Follow the money trail” was a comment made on an October 12, 2025 article describing Chicago politics as a gangster movie rerun.  Well, both Jesse Watters of Fox News and the Chicago Sun-Times decided to “follow the money trail” for Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, now that he is standing in the way of arresting criminals and blocking President Trump’s heroic attempt to shut down crime in Chicago.

Jesse Watters reported that Pritzker made over a million dollars playing blackjack in 2024 while staying in Sin City Las Vegas.  Senior National Correspondent Kevin Corke stated Pritzker made “$1.425 million bucks in a single day,” as reported on his 2024 taxes.  Pritzker stated that he was on vacation with his wife and was “incredibly lucky.”  That was a good choice of words, for in the definition of the word “incredible” is, “so implausible as to elicit disbelief, not credible.”  

Ten months and one American Thinker article later, Pritzker’s campaign has now  said, “he will donate the money to charity.”  That was convenient.

Corke stated, “No word on any possible casino video confirming the winnings or any word on any possible ongoing investigation.”  Corke also reported that Pritzker stated, “Come and get me.”  That was cocky! Is this an admission of some kind of guilt?  Smiling and looking like one of the family, Pritzker implied he was “Mr. Lucky on vacation.”  Watters sarcastically stated, “Pam Bondi, I am sure she’s not interested in this at all,” and Cork, sarcastically laughing, agreed.

Kicking this up to another level of interest, Fox Nation has a series of true crime investigations, one of which is called, “Riddle: The search for James R. [Riddle] Hoffa.”  Watching the first two episodes, you begin to realize that Jimmy Hoffa could be buried anywhere, but skipping to episode 7, you learn that after his execution by the mafia, most of his body was probably mashed up in a huge trash compactor that “mysteriously burned down” shortly thereafter.

Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa was trying to help American workers by forming the Teamsters Union which fights for higher wages, health benefits, and better working conditions.  Unwisely, he loaned Teamsters’ money to the mafia to construct their casinos in Las Vegas, which they did.  Somehow, Hoffa ended up in prison, losing the union presidency, yet pardoned and released by then President Nixon.  

After his presidential pardon, Hoffa loudly expressed disloyalty to the mob, planned to expose them, and had renewed desires to run the union (and control its’ money).  Directly thereafter, Hoffa disappeared forever.

Watching the first two episodes of Fox Nation’s program, about halfway in the middle of the second, one begins to notice the family resemblance between Governor Pritzker and many of these featured criminal hoods, causing one to wonder if he is related.  His actions and “winnings” suggest that he may be “in the family” from a criminal standpoint.

Intriguing to note, Pritzker took office in 2019 and “significantly” expanded gambling across the entire state of Illinois.  He signed legislation legalizing sports betting, authorized six new casinos and expanded the pool of tens of thousands of slot machines in bars and restaurants, with the casinos raking in $1.8 billion in the last fiscal year alone.  The Pritzker family has a decades-long history of ties to the casino industry, as does the mob.

Gambling is big business.  In just the month of October of 2021 Americans wagered a record breaking  $7.04 billion on sports in 25 jurisdictions.  In October of 2021 the American Gaming Association said that U.S. Casinos broke the record of most money won in a single year, $44.15 billion. 

While gambling is big business, so is money laundering.  “Money laundering poses a significant threat to the casino industry, with billions of dollars being funneled through casinos annually…. [2025] Estimates suggest that approximately $140 billion in illicit funds is laundered through casinos each year.”  The very nature of casino transactions with high volumes of cash and high-value bets, creates an attractive environment for criminals (and politicians?) looking to legitimatize their illicit proceeds.

Apparently, there are numerous ways to launder money in casinos with the six most popular listed here.  “In 2022 alone, reports show casino regulators in the US, the UK, Austria, Sweden, and the Netherlands issued over $264 million in fines to casinos—representing a 444 percent increase over 2021.”  This amount in fines seems like chump-change spread across five countries considering the estimated $140 billion laundered.

While owning Hyatt Hotels, and not taking a governmental salary, Pritzker has more than tripled his income in the year 2024 listing $10.7 million compared to $2.8 million reported in the year 2023.  Fourteen Percent of his income in 2024 was due to gambling, but it should be noted that his recent “gambling winnings” were equal to 52% of his salary from 2023.  So, this is no small amount of money for a one day winning at blackjack.

Researching revealed there was a known gangster named “Mr. Lucky,” Lucky Luciano, who was “best known for engineering the structure of modern organized crime in the United States.” Mr. Lucky’s “industries” were listed as “crime and terrorism,” akin to Pritzker’s governing style when he doesn’t support President Trump’s efforts to stop crime.  Like an inside joke, Pritzker calls himself "lucky." Was that a coincidence or just careless?

In 2024 Chicago had the dubious honor of reigning as the” homicide capital” of the U.S. for the 13^th straight year.  In fact, Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Assistant Secretary stated the Cartel working with domestic extremist groups has issued bounties to target ICE and CBP agents in Chicago.  They are “coordinated and highly organized, waging war against our law enforcement in a terror campaign against them,”  having created a tiered bounty system, “offering $2000 for intelligence about our ICE law enforcement agents, including their family, to dox them, $5000 to kidnap an ICE law enforcement agent, and even more money to kill them.”  Groups are actually handing intelligence over to the Cartels to go after American law enforcement officers. 

During the recent “No Kings” protest, a staff member of Chicago’s Wilbur Wright College spoke through a microphone to the crowd and said, “You gotta grab a gun, we gotta turn around the guns on this fascist system…The ICE agents gotta get shot and wiped out,” with Rep. Jamie Raskins (D-MD) declaring the “No Kings” protests “totally positive, totally patriotic.” 

With Pritzker leading the march for “No Kings” protests in Illinois, he is seeking a third term as governor and is widely expected to run for president in 2028.  Does anyone think Pritzker is presidential material?  No!  Pritzker would probably turn President Trump’s ballroom into a gambling casino and put slot machines in the Capitol’s Rotunda.  Maybe J.B. Pritzker and Gavin Newsom could team up together under the slogan, “Sleazy and Greasy.”  Although, it’d be hard to tell who’s who.

Common sense has said that if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.  Therefore, if someone looks like a mobster, sounds like a mobster, and acts like a mobster, then — what might they be?  Mafioso?