New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Hours before NFL kickoff, feds approve sports gambling in CT
Hours before the start of the NFL season, Connecticut received federal approval late Thursday to move forward with online gaming and sports betting at the state’s two casinoowning tribes.
Gov. Ned Lamont had set an unofficial deadline of Sept. 9 to launch the wagering — the football season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — when he signed legislation in late May, expanding gambling. His office announced the approval by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs late in the afternoon but actual betting isn’t likely to start until October.
Consent by the feds — the same agency that balked at approving the ill-fated, joint proposal for a casino in East Windsor four years ago — was the last overall hurdle needed before the betting public can wager on ballgames and other events in Connecticut, and play casino games online.
“Today’s announcement puts Connecticut on the cusp of providing a modern, technologically advanced gaming experience that will be competitive with our neighboring states and positions us for success into the future,” Lamont said in a written statement.
The state Department of Consumer Protection is responsible for certifying people as well as companies involved in gaming including DraftKings and FanDuel, the two fantasy sports companies selected by the tribes to set up gaming platforms. A legislative committee recently approved temporary rules for the new industry, which the state published this week.
The heads of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, in a joint statement with Lamont,
also indicated that with the federal approval it wouldn’t be long before the new industry would be up and running. DCP has been working on the application process for most of the summer.
“That will be the final piece of the puzzle,” state Sen. Cathy Osten, DSprague, whose district includes the two casinos and who championed the gaming legislation, said in a statement Thursday marking the federal approval.
Separately, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. is setting up in-person locations for sports betting, in a partnership that includes a gaming operator and Sportech, which owns and operates off-trackbetting locations around the state. Those locations are several weeks from opening, sources said.
Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, has said Foxwoods was ready to launch immediately.
“We will continue to work with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection to make sports betting and iGaming available
as soon as we are legally allowed to do so in Connecticut,” Butler said in the joint statement Thursday. “This is a day to celebrate.”
Approval by the federal agency, part of the Department of the Interior, was needed to certify a new memoradum of understanding between the state and the tribes, amending compacts signed in the 1990s. State and tribal officials received word of the approval Thursday but it still must be recorded in the Federal Register.
Mohegan Chairman James Gessner said the gaming expansion “will help protect and create Connecticut jobs, and it will generate tax revenues to the benefit of both state and local municipal budgets, as well as our tribe’s members.”
“This is not just a regional issue — it will have a statewide impact as Connecticut works to meet critical needs as it recovers from the pandemic,” he said.