Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker won $1.4 million enjoying blackjack in Las Vegas final yr, in line with a launch from his marketing campaign, coaching a highlight on the billionaire Democrat’s great private wealth with a possible 2028 presidential marketing campaign looming.
At a press convention Thursday, Pritzker was requested concerning the disclosure and stated that he won the prize whereas on a trip with pals. His marketing campaign famous that he donated the winnings to charity.
“I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends, I was incredibly lucky. You have to be to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere,” Pritzker joked. “It was in Las Vegas, and I like to play cards.”
Pritzker famous that he had based a charitable poker event in Chicago “that has raised millions of dollars for the Holocaust Museum here, and particularly to stand up for civil rights.”
“So anyway, that’s, that’s all I can say about it,” Pritzker remarked. “Had fun doing it. I, you know, encourage people to come to the state of Illinois and gamble in our casinos here, we have some really lovely places to go.”
The tax filings confirmed that Pritzker and his spouse, MK, reported greater than $10 million in earnings for 2024. Pritzker, a multi-billionaire, is an inheritor to the Hyatt lodge chain fortune, and his household is among the many wealthiest in the United States.
The Illinois governor has deployed his fortune for each his personal political campaigns and the broader Democratic Party. He helped secure the 2024 Democratic National Convention for Chicago in his dwelling state, contributing hundreds of thousands to the occasion, and in addition gave greater than $1 million to the struggle over a crucial Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin earlier this yr.
Pritzker now ranks as one of many high contenders for his celebration’s 2028 presidential nomination forward of a wide-open race, leveraging his prominence as governor and his immense private fortune to construct affect and lift his profile.
And he has leaned into confrontations with the second Trump administration all through its opening months, clashing with the president over the deployment of the National Guard to Chicago, and positioning himself because the bulwark of his celebration’s resistance.
“The people who are fighting against the things that are so important to working families and the fundamental values of Democrats have all the money, or most of it,” Pritzker told NCS earlier this yr. “And so when I have an opportunity, I step up.”