CHICAGO – Don Harmon has a line he uses when the subject of online gambling comes up in Springfield. He is, his office says, “among the most skeptical voices” in the state capital about the wisdom of putting a slot machine in every Illinoisan’s pocket. On January 6, 2026, the campaign committee for the Illinois Senate President accepted $50,000 from ARB Interactive, the parent company of Modo, an online casino the Illinois Gaming Board would order to cease operations the following month for violating state law.
The contribution, reported Wednesday by the Chicago Sun-Times, was ARB Interactive’s first political donation in Illinois. It went to Friends of Don Harmon for State Senate. Roughly five weeks later, in February 2026, the Illinois Gaming Board sent ARB a cease-and-desist letter stating that Modo’s games gave users “the opportunity to win cash, gift cards, and other prizes in violation of Illinois law.” The board’s letter was not made public at the time of the donation. ARB has not complied with it. Modo’s website remains accessible to Illinois residents today.
After the Sun-Times published its report, Harmon’s campaign said it would donate the $50,000 to local charities. His spokesman reiterated the Senate President’s stated position: that he has long been skeptical of gambling expansion. Neither the spokesman nor the campaign addressed why the contribution was accepted in the first place, or whether Harmon’s office had any contact with ARB or Modo’s representatives in the period between the donation and the gaming board’s cease-and-desist letter.
The $50,000 was not the only gambling-industry money flowing to Harmon’s operation this year. In March 2026, the Sports Betting Alliance contributed $250,000 to his campaign, a separate transaction that has not prompted the same scrutiny because sports betting is legal in Illinois. The juxtaposition is uncomfortable for a legislator whose chamber controls the regulatory framework that governs both the legal sports betting market and the gray-zone online casino industry that has expanded aggressively into states without explicit authorization.
ARB Interactive hired an Illinois lobbying firm run by Dan Shomon in 2026, the same year it made its first state political contributions. Shomon is a well-connected Springfield operative. His hiring suggests ARB was building a legislative strategy in Illinois at the same time it was making political donations and operating under a gaming board enforcement action. What that strategy was, and whether it involved the Senate President’s office in any way, is not answered by the available record.
Illinois is not the only jurisdiction where Modo has faced regulatory resistance. The Arizona Gaming Department has characterized ARB Interactive’s operation as a “felony criminal enterprise.” A federal lawsuit filed in California alleges predatory conduct by the company. Those characterizations existed before ARB made its Illinois donation, and they did not appear to factor into the campaign committee’s decision to accept it.
State Representative Bob Rita (D-Blue Island), who chairs the House Gaming Committee and has influence over Illinois gambling legislation, received a $2,500 contribution from an ARB Interactive employee on March 10, 2026. His office had not responded to press inquiries as of the Sun-Times report’s publication date.
The Illinois Gaming Board has not disclosed an enforcement timeline or indicated whether it intends to pursue further action against ARB beyond the cease-and-desist letter it sent in February. No criminal referral has been publicly announced. The board’s investigation is ongoing, according to its public statements, though the pace of that investigation, and whether it will reach a conclusion before ARB’s Springfield lobbying effort shapes the legislative environment, is the question the board has not answered.
Online casino gaming occupies a legally ambiguous position in Illinois. The state has not passed legislation explicitly authorizing it. Operators like ARB take the position that their products operate under existing sweepstakes law and do not require a gaming license. Regulators in Illinois, Arizona, and elsewhere disagree. The gap between those two positions is, in practice, the space where a lobbying firm and a $50,000 campaign contribution are meant to do their work.
What Harmon’s charity donation resolves is the immediate political embarrassment. What it does not resolve is whether the Illinois Senate, under his leadership, will close the legal gap that allowed Modo to operate in the state for months after the gaming board told it to stop, and to make political contributions while doing so.
