Gov. Pritzker tax returns show $8.5 million income for 2025, no blackjack windfall; trust records still secret

There were no big wins at the blackjack table for Gov. JB Pritzker in 2025, according to partial tax returns released Thursday, offering a limited glimpse into the billionaire Democrat’s finances less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

Pritzker — who is running for a rare third term as governor in a rematch against Republican Darren Bailey, a wealthy southern Illinois farmer — raised eyebrows and made headlines last fall when he and first lady MK Pritzker reported more than $1.4 million in gambling winnings on their 2024 taxes. The governor later told reporters he won the money playing blackjack during a single trip to Las Vegas.

For 2025, the Pritzkers reported $8.5 million in taxable income on their state return, down from $10.3 million the previous year. The drop in income was due, in part, to more than $2.4 million in “other subtractions” listed on the couple’s state returns.

But because Pritzker’s campaign has released only the top pages of his state and federal returns since he launched his first campaign for governor in 2017, the nature of those substantial subtractions is unclear. Campaign spokesman Alex Gough said the subtractions were “income that was included in federal taxable income but is not taxable in Illinois,” but declined to elaborate.

The Pritzkers paid $422,260 in state income tax for 2025 and $2.2 million in federal income tax, according to the returns.

In addition, trusts benefiting the governor, an heir to the family fortune made from Hyatt Hotels and an array of other businesses, paid $8.8 million in Illinois taxes and $50.4 million in federal taxes, according to Pritzker’s political campaign.

Bailey’s campaign has not released 2025 tax returns for the former state lawmaker or for Bailey’s running mate, Aaron Del Mar.

With a personal fortune Forbes magazine estimated at $4.2 billion as of Thursday, Pritzker has never released tax records related to the domestic and offshore trusts that hold much of his wealth, some of which his grandfather set up in the Bahamas decades ago.

Pritzker hasn’t collected a taxpayer-funded paycheck during his nearly eight years in office, and almost all the income reported on his 2025 federal return came from capital gains ($4 million), dividends ($3.6 million) and interest ($1.8 million).

After winning his first term in 2018, Pritzker turned control of his personal investments over to an independent trustee at Northern Trust Co., a move he said would help him avoid potential conflicts of interest. He also promised to divest himself of “his personally-held direct interests in companies that have contracts” with the state, though he has never provided a full accounting of those transactions.

Pritzker has called the arrangement a “blind trust,” but experts have said it isn’t truly blind because the trustees must give him the information he needs to complete his mandatory economic interest disclosures.

JB and MK Pritzker’s personal charitable giving dropped to $1.9 million in 2025 from $3.3 million the year before, according to his campaign.

Separately, Pritzker contributed $25.5 million to his reelection campaign in 2025 and nearly $7.2 million to federal candidates and political action committees. Most of the money contributed for federal races, $5 million, went to Illinois Future PAC, a super PAC that backed his two-time running mate, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, in the March Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Think Big America, a dark money group Pritzker founded to support abortion rights nationwide, received $5 million in contributions in 2025, according to its most recent federal tax filing. While the group is not required to disclose its donors, Pritzker’s political operation has previously said he is its sole funder.

The Pritzker campaign also released the 2025 tax returns of his current running mate, former Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell, whose taxable income was $463,693, according to his state return.

Mitchell, who announced in July 2025 that he was stepping down from his position as vice president for civic engagement at the University of Chicago to join Pritzker’s campaign, paid $113,369 in federal income tax last year and $22,593 in state tax, according to his returns.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com