A man plays a video slot machine in a lounge at Huck’s, a truck stop in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Under Illinois’ new gambling expansion, bars, restaurants, fraternal organizations and gambling parlors will be allowed to have six machines, up from five. Trucks stops will be permitted to hold 10 machines. (Whitney Curtis, special to ProPublica Illinois)

An 816-page bill introduced and passed by the General Assembly over the weekend will, if fully realized, transform Illinois into the gambling capital of the Midwest.

The legislation legalizes sports gambling; sanctions six new casinos, including one in Chicago; increases the number of video gambling machines as well as the maximum bet; and transforms the state’s horse racing tracks into “racinos” by permitting casino operations at the state’s three existing tracks while allowing two more to open.

 People with the Bet on Main Street Coalition rallied at the Illinois State Capitol on May 8, in Springfield, Illinois. The group opposes a tax increase on video gambling. Organizers claimed attendees were small bar and restaurant owners, but records and interviews show that employees of the state’s largest video gambling companies were among the crowd. (Whitney Curtis, special to ProPublica Illinois)

This story is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ Chicago, co-published with the Chicago Sun-Times and The Daily Line. ProPublica Illinois is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. Sign up for our newsletter to get weekly updates written by our journalists.

With the Illinois General Assembly poised to consider a tax hike on video gambling, some key lawmakers and their family members have developed previously undisclosed financial connections to the industry, meaning the fate of any proposal could lie in part on votes of legislators with a stake in the outcome.

Julia Kuo, for Pro Publica Illinois

After he was charged in January with burglary, D’Angelo Springer had a decision to make.

Springer, 24, had been pulled over after running a stop sign in Kankakee County. He was giving a ride to an acquaintance, who had an arrest warrant in a neighboring county. When officers searched the car, according to police reports, they found a checkbook behind the passenger seat that had been taken in a car break-in. Springer denied he was involved, but he was charged with felony burglary, which could have sent him to prison.