(New York) Surprising news caught the attention of Americans last week concerning JB Pritzker, leading figure in the Democratic opposition to Donald Trump.
According to his 2024 tax return, the Illinois governor won a cool $1.4 million gambling last year, out of a total income of $10 million.
“I went on vacation with my wife and a few friends, I was very lucky. You have to have it to come out a winner, frankly, when you go to the casino, wherever it is,” he said jokingly at a press conference in Chicago.
“It was in Las Vegas, and I like to play cards,” he added after letting it be known that he had donated his winnings at the Vegas blackjack tables to charity.
JB Pritzker’s penchant for gambling isn’t exactly a secret. After all, he founded a charity poker tournament in Chicago. And even though he no longer frequents Las Vegas as often as he used to, he is still considered a “whale,” a term that describes a player who bets extraordinary amounts.
This approach also seems to guide him in politics. Like Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker embodies resistance to Donald Trump’s most controversial policies, including the deployment of the National Guard on the streets of major American cities.
But, unlike his Californian counterpart, he does not “troll” the president by publishing ironic or parody memes. He attacks it head on with a belligerent tone that has no equal among Democrats of his rank.
“It appears that Donald Trump not only has dementia, but is also copying Vladimir Putin’s tactics,” he said after Donald Trump’s recent speech at a Virginia military base, where he called on generals and admirals to prepare for a “war within.”
Heir to a fortune
“There is something seriously wrong with this man, and the 25the amendment should be invoked,” he added, referring to this amendment which allows the dismissal of a president incapable of exercising his powers.
Can he be as lucky at this game as at blackjack?
One thing is certain, the theme of luck already occupies an important place in the life of this 60-year-old governor who is believed to have presidential ambitions, even if he has announced his intention to seek a third term in 2026.
He initially inherited $1.3 billion, a fortune that he tripled over the years as a savvy investor. His father Donald and uncle Jay founded a very successful hotel chain – the Hyatt chain – after purchasing a single, simple hotel near the Los Angeles airport.
That said, money did not protect JB Pritzker from misfortune. His father, who was rumored to have eventually entered politics, died at the age of 39 of a heart attack while playing tennis while in Hawaii, where he was to inaugurate a new Hyatt hotel, in 1972.
Ten years later, his mother Sue, who suffered from alcoholism, died after throwing herself from a moving truck that was towing her Cadillac to a garage. A car traveling in the opposite direction ran over her.
But Donald and Sue Pritzker bequeathed to their three children a family ethic that JB (Jay Robert) defined in these terms to the magazine The New Yorker in 2023: “You are one of the luckiest people in the world. You have a duty to do more than just take care of yourself: you must be selfless, be kind to others, and express gratitude when appropriate. »
A progressive billionaire
On the political level, “luck” has already smiled on JB Pritzker after he dipped into his personal fortune to bet the extraordinary sum of $171 million in his first campaign for governor of Illinois, in 2018. His critics accused him of having bought the election. He was facing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, another billionaire, who cut $70 million from his own fortune to get re-elected.
However, the Democratic billionaire’s program had nothing to do with that of the oligarchs denounced today by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other figures of the progressive movement. JB Pritzker advocated raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, defunding schools and public libraries that ban books, strengthening laws to protect access to abortion, and supporting decarbonization of the economy, among other things.
Seven years later, the governor of Illinois is leading a fight that goes far beyond the borders of his state. He is participating with other Democratic governors in the legal challenge to the president’s executive order to end birthright citizenship in the United States.
And he welcomes the recent decision of an appeals court to temporarily block the deployment of the National Guard on the streets of Chicago.
According to him, this deployment of soldiers to fight crime or to protect the immigration police could only be a step or a pretext leading to an objective linked to the mid-term elections, in November 2026.
“I think it’s not far off to propose and provide the military to protect polling stations across the United States, but particularly in Democratic states and cities, with the idea that they could confiscate the ballot boxes if they think there is electoral fraud,” said recently the man Donald Trump called for to be put in prison.
It goes without saying that JB Pritzker will need a lot of luck to come out on top.
