Pritzker Hinky?

Yesterday it was reported,

Billionaire Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker raked it in big in 2024, including more than $1 million while gambling in Las Vegas.

A new tax filing released by Pritzker’s campaign on Wednesday, Oct. 14, shows the Democratic governor and his wife, MK, reporting about $10.7 million in adjusted gross income, according to the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC News.

The filing also indicated that $1.4 million reportedly came from the Hyatt Hotels Corp. heir winning blackjack at a Las Vegas casino.

. . . “I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends,” he said. “I was incredibly lucky. You have to be to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere — it was in Las Vegas — and I like to play cards,”

His campaign said the governor will be donating his winnings to charity.

Several things jump out at me here. I'm not a tax expert; all I know about taxes is that my wife takes everything to an accountant before April 15 each year. But what has me scratching my head is that Pritzker won the $1.4 million in 2024, but here we are in 2025, and his campaign says he "will be donating" the money to charity. This reminds me of the Amber Heard dodge: it came out in the Johnny Depp defamation trial that she "pledged" to donate her $7 million divorce settlement to charity. However, a pledge is just a non-binding promise, and she never actually donated the amount, saying she just used the words "pledge" and "donate" synonymously.

So I have a certain sense of weasel-wording from Pritzker here. More suspicious is the social media reaction to the news of his blackjack win reported in this post at Gateway Pundit, in which observers thought this must be a way to launder kickbacks and similar payments. I asked Chrome AI mode, "How unusual is it to win $1.4 million in blackjack?" but didn't mention Pritzker. Oddly, "AI" immediately read my mind and already knew the question was about Pritzker:

Winning $1.4 million in blackjack is extremely unusual and almost certainly the result of a high-stakes, short-term lucky streak, rather than a prolonged session of consistent winnings. While blackjack has some of the best odds in a casino, the house edge makes such a massive net win highly improbable over the long term.

. . . Such a large win typically occurs with very large bets placed at high-roller tables, which require a substantial bankroll. A high-roller, such as Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who won $1.4 million in Las Vegas, could place wagers as high as $100,000 on a single hand. This makes it possible to accumulate huge wins in a short period.

Here's the problem I see, or at least think I see. Nothing gets by casino security; there are cameras everywhere and agents to back them up on the floor. The Governor of Illinois, J B Pritzker, doesn't just wander into a casino off the street. His security guys coordinate with the casino's security guys. The casino is perfectly aware of Pritzker's every move, they know what table he's playing. They likely know every bet he makes in real time. Nothing involving J B Pritzker is going to be a surprise, especially not a $1.4 million win. I don't need to be Philip Marlowe to figure that one out.

"AI" is telling me this is just blind luck, a whale of the sort that's comped suites, gourmet meals, expensive booze, trips on private jets because he always loses suddenly wins big time. But "AI" goes on to tell me that not only is Pritzker real, real lucky, he's real, real smart on top of it:

A key factor in realizing a large net win is having the discipline to stop playing while ahead. As Pritzker also observed, many players who go on a winning streak will keep playing until they lose everything they have won. Ending a session after a big win locks in the profit.

According to Wikipedia, Pritzker's estimated net worth is $3.9 billion. $1.4 million should be chump change to the guy. So the received version of this story would be, "Wow, what a night! Never had such fun in my life! This win will really be great for the Holocaust Museum's new wing! I'll tell my lawyers to transfer %1.4 million to the museum tomorrow morning!" Except that's not what happened. If his campaign has this right, he still hasn't donated the money, at least a year later.

And here's another odd bit: in his televised remarks on his big win, he urged people to come gamble in Illinois casinos -- but he went to Vegas instead. I doubt if any Illinois casino can comp at his level. Or maybe nobody in Illinois casinos has the resources to launder money at the national Democrat level.

Still suspicious, I asked Chrome AI mode, again without mentioning Pritzker, "Are there any surprises when $1.4 million is involved?" Boy, is AI something -- it read my mind once again!

Surprises with a $1.4 million windfall typically relate to the financial, legal, and personal complexities that arise from managing a large, unexpected sum of money. Recent events, like Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's $1.4 million blackjack win, highlight how such windfalls can attract intense public scrutiny and require thoughtful handling.

To a guy with a net worth of #3.9 billion, $1.4 million ought to be chump change, just a lucky night at the casino, but apparently it isn't, or it would already have been donated. Pritzker is a strange character. Short, fat, and Jewish, his chances of being elected to the presidency as a Democrat are close to nil, but he continues that vanity project while denouncing Trump with increasingly unhinged rhetoric. I don't rule out that he's nervous about too much federal law enforcement getting a little too nosy around Chicago.