State’s early take is $1.7 million from sports bets, online casinos

The numbers are in for the first month of online gambling and sports wagering in Connecticut, and it’s too soon to know how the industry is shaping up.

Connecticut’s tax coffers gained a total of $1.7 million in the partial month of betting under the new system, on a total of $366 million in wagers. As expected, casino games online were a lot bigger than sports betting, even though sports gloms the headlines.

Betting began with a soft launch Oct. 12, then in earnest a week later. So it’s basically half a month. Here’s the breakdown:

In online casino games, Mohegan Digital took in $123 million in wagers and paid out $119 million for a house win of $4 million. They lopped off $1 million for promotions — remember all those offers where you were guaranteed cash if you opened an account? — and made a $3 million profit, paying the state $545,478, or 18 percent.

The Mashantucket Pequots, who operate Foxwoods Resort Casino, attracted a larger handle of $189.5 million, earning $4.8 million. That tribe paid out $1.2 million in promotions, for a profit of $3.6 million and the state’s cut was $649,879.

Total collected by the state from online casino games: $1,195,357 on $312 million in bets.

Now we move to the fun stuff, sports betting in the heat of the NFL season, as the state had planned when the Department of Consumer Protection fasttracked the rules at Gov. Ned Lamont’s request.

Mohegan Digital Sports grossed $874,160 on $27.1 million in online sports bets with its partner, FanDuel. After deductions including federal taxes, the operators of Mohegan Sun earned $609,530, paying the state $83,810, or 13.75 percent.

The Mashantucket Pequots and their partner, DraftKings, grossed a much larger $3.6 million on a smaller sports handle, $23.8 million. It’s not clear why the profit margin was so much larger at Foxwoods, but the tribe netted $2.7 million after expenses and paid the state $370,429.

The Connecticut Lottery Corp. took in $3.2 million in online bets, earning $214,290, which meant $29,465 for the state.

Oddly, the Lottery Corp. earned almost the exact same amount in its inperson, retail location sports bets that started Oct. 25. But the total bet in the retail locations was much less, $542,000.

Grand totals for sports betting: $54.6 million in wagers placed; $513,000 sent to the state.

Next up: We’ll try to get a breakdown by sports to see how cricket in India fared against Russian table tennis on the Connecticut betting scene.

We don’t get to see the results of in-person sports bets at the casinos because that’s not taxed under the law Lamont signed in the spring.

“This first revenue collection for our state reinforces the process and approach by my administration when it came to ensuring our sports betting and iCasino platforms worked seamlessly for consumers,” Lamont said in a press release. “We’re off to a great start with this new gaming marketplace and we’re looking forward to years of success.”

The contributions to the state are far lower than the 25 percent take of gross revenues for slot machines at the casinos, which averaged more than $18 million a month in the last fiscal year, even with the Covid decline. Beyond that, it’s hard to say how it stacks up to expectations because this report covered only the first three weeks of online betting — a time of heavy promotions to attract gamblers.

“We’re encouraged by the early results,” said Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council and an ardent advocate for online gaming. “The engagement sets a promising benchmark and we expect the momentum to only build as more consumers get in on the action, and the NFL season peaks over the coming months.”

Butler did not offer an explanation as to why sports bets were so much more profitable on the Foxwoods platform than they were on the Mohegan one — which paid out a higher percentage to bettors.