Cicero, IL Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Section 26-140, adopted by Ordinance No. 2-95 in January 1995, defines a pawnbroker as anyone in the business of receiving property in pledge or as security for money or another thing advanced to the pawner. Subsection (b) then states flatly that no person shall operate as a pawnbroker within the town, with no license, application or permit path offered anywhere in the section. com stolen-property database. No comparable licensing path exists for a pawnbroker; the code simply forecloses the business model. The prohibition sits within Chapter 26's general business-licensing article, alongside the town's other individually regulated occupations such as blacksmith shops, coal dealers, feedstores and lumberyards, several of which date to a 1920 ordinance and were carried forward through the 1958 and 1995 code revisions.

Because Section 26-140 bans the activity itself rather than merely withholding a license category, a business license officer has no fee schedule or application form to process for a pawnbroker, and any attempt to operate one in Cicero is unlawful regardless of whether the operator seeks a permit.