Online gambling starts in Connecticut, with the first bets placed on NLCS
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HARTFORD, Conn. — Online gambling in Connecticut began at 6 a.m. Tuesday, kicking off expanded wagering that was years in the making in negotiations between elected officials and the state’s two Native American-owned casinos over details of sports betting and digital games.
FanDuel, the partner of Mohegan Sun casino, and DraftKings, which is working with Foxwoods Resort Casino, said the first bets were on the third game Tuesday of the National League Championship Series between the Atlanta Braves and the L.A. Dodgers.
Connecticut joins six other states in offering online gambling: Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which operates Foxwoods Resort Casino, said at an online news conference that digital gambling in New Jersey and Pennsylvania has expanded the gambling market and has not depressed business at the casinos.
“We’re looking forward to positive, incremental gains for the entire state of Connecticut,” he said.
The state Department of Consumer Protection authorized the early morning launch of online sports wagering and iCasino on phone apps, laptops, tablets and other devices following a one-week limited trial.
The Connecticut Lottery Corp., Mohegan Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot Tribe began offering online wagering to adults 21 and older through their online gambling operating partners. The Lottery has partnered with Rush Street Interactive.
The two tribes also may offer iCasino. More than 130 games have been approved by the Department of Consumer Protection for FanDuel and DraftKings apps.
The tribes, state lawmakers and then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, first talked up sports betting in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that had barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont resumed negotiations, which picked up speed this year.
At the center of the complicated negotiations were compacts guaranteeing exclusive gambling rights to the Mashantucket Pequots, the owners of Foxwoods, and Mohegans in return for billions of dollars in tax revenue on slot machine use.
Butler said the new gambling venture is a big step for the Mashantucket Pequots, whose beginnings in Connecticut date to the 17th century.
“In all of our lifetimes that this tribe, my family, went from tapping maple trees for syrup and timbering trees for lumber to sell for sustainability that now we are one of the largest gaming organizations in the world and launching into this historic initiative is just simply amazing in itself,” he said.
Foxwoods posted about $327 million in slot machine revenue for the year that ended June 30, a drop of $116 million, or 26% from before the pandemic.
Robert T. Simmelkjaer II, chairman of the board of the Connecticut Lottery Corp., said the reduced revenue was a spur for the casinos and the Lamont administration to negotiate a deal reworking the state’s gambling landscape. Connecticut takes 25% of slot revenue and takes a hit with the casinos as slot revenue declines.
“They had an acute need to find a new source of revenue. And so did the state,” he said in an interview with Jared Kotler, host of "The Connecticut Scoreboard Podcast." “So everybody had an incentive to get a deal done.”
Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods opened their sports betting sites Sept. 30 and the Lottery Corp. will soon be opening betting sites in New Haven, Stamford and Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, followed by seven other sites in the next few weeks.
