The last I had heard in Illinois is there is a cap and there are x amount of permits being alloted to those who go the outfitter route. What is left after that goes into a lottery IF the total amount of allocated permits are exceded by demands. This did not happen this year and with increased rates next year it probably won't happen either. Of course this is for archery, I don't know how they do the firarm version of it but I would guess it is a draw based on county applied for, it works that way for residents