CT online gambling launches with thousands of bets and an open future

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A day after New Jersey announced it was the first state to take in more than $1 billion in sports wagers in a single month, Connecticut fully launched online casino gaming and sports betting with thousands of bets placed in the first few hours.

Now the question is what the largest betting expansion in decades will mean for state coffers, and for businesses in the state — starting with the Native American casinos.

At a 9:30 a.m. online press conference Tuesday, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler said thousands of bets had come in since the 6 a.m. launch, starting with a wager on the Los Angeles Dodgers to beat the Atlantic Braves in Game 3 of the National League championship series.

The Mashantuckets, who operate Foxwoods Resort Casino, have joined with with DraftKings to offer online wagering to adults ages 21 and older.

The Connecticut Lottery Corp., and the Mohegan Tribe, which owns Mohegan Sun, have contracted with Rush Street Interactive and FanDuel, respectively, to run their online sites. Representatives for the lottery and Mohegan Sun did not disclose how many bets were placed Tuesday.

None of the three venues disclosed how many bettors they attracted on Day 1 of online and sports gaming.

With legalization stalled in Massachusetts, and New York slow to get online sports gambling up and running, Connecticut is hoping to capitalize on its early entry to the industry, including attracting out-of-state bettors.

“It’s hard to speculate on exactly what we’ll see but whenever there’s a ‘halo’ of states, like in this case around Connecticut, that don’t offer legal regulated sports betting, we see a lot of customers traveling in to make bets who live around the border, and certainly also tourists who are visiting the state,” said Matt Kalish, DraftKings’ president and co-founder, who joined Butler at the virtual briefing.

Connecticut’s law requires bettors to physically be located in the state to wager on the online sites, which is accomplished through through GPS fencing. A recent New York Times report detailed how some New York gamblers are biking over the George Washington Bridge to place online wagers in New Jersey.

“We do anticipate the overall excitement of these new gaming offerings will assist in drawing new customers, some of which will be out-of-state.” Rich Roberts, president of Mohegan Digital for Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, said in a written statement Tuesday.

The two tribes and the lottery all participated in a seven-day soft launch, with 750 participants each placing bets for a limited number of hours. Lottery officials reported at an Oct. 14 meeting that more than $60,000 was bet in the first two days of the soft launch with the average wager being $45. The highest wager was just under $1,800 and the lowest was 10 cents, lottery President Greg Smith said at last week’s meeting.

The lottery is still awaiting approval from the state Department of Consumer Protection for 10 of 15 retail sites it is authorized to run, with Sportech, operator of the state’s off-track betting locations, as a partner.

The state expects the gaming expansion to generate $30 million in the first year, eventually ramping up to an estimated $100 million a year, by taxing online sports betting at 13.75 percent, and online casino games at 18 percent, rising to 20 percent after five years. The lottery will not pay a tax because all of its revenues after expenses go to the state’s general fund.