Financial luck has always been in the cards for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
The Democratic billionaire and heir to the Hyatt hotels empire won $1.4 million while playing blackjack last year in Las Vegas, tax filings show.
“I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends. I was incredibly lucky,” Pritzker said Thursday in response to a reporter’s question about the big winnings. “You have to be to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere.”
Pritzker added he encourages people to come to Illinois to gamble in the state’s casinos.
A spokesperson for Pritzker’s campaign told NBC News that he would donate the winnings to charity. Pritzker and his wife, Mary Kathryn, also reported nearly $10.7 million in total gross income on their joint federal return. He has a total net worth of $3.9 billion, according to Forbes, and is the country’s richest governor.
Pritzker’s uncle, Jay Pritzker, founded the Hyatt hotel chain in 1957 and grew the business with his father, Donald Pritzker. Before he was elected as governor in 2018, Pritzker founded multiple venture capital firms.
Pritzker has been one of Donald Trump’s fiercest critics, especially as the president continues to threaten to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, a move a judge has blocked for now. In his Democratic National Convention speech last year, Pritzker said: “Take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity.” Trump, in turn, has called for Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed “for failing to protect Ice Officers!” Amid escalating tensions in Chicago, Pritzker argues the opposite is true, saying ICE is “harassing people for not being white.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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