Gov. leads line as CT wagers start
UNCASVILLE — Gov. Ned Lamont ushered in the next step in legalized gambling in Connecticut Thursday, making the state’s first legal sports wager with a $50 bet for the Connecticut Sun basketball team to beat the Chicago Sky.
After casting his bet at Mohegan Sun, the governor placed two $20 wagers at Foxwoods, picking the Yankees to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to top the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Both tribal casinos opened temporary sportsbooks on Thursday for in-person gambling, weeks after the state Department of Consumer Protection approved licenses for sports betting.
Lamont, who grew up a Yankees fan, said it was his first time ever betting on sports and that he was a “safe man.” With the exception of the Yankees, all of the teams the governor bet on were favored to win, though Lamont said he also bet on each of his teams to cover the spread.
“I bet my heart, I don’t know what the odds are,” Lamont said at Foxwoods.
If the Sun win, Lamont will receive $46.50 plus the $50 for a total of $96.50, a Mohegan official said. Foxwoods did not say what the governor’s payout would be for his bets.
A larger rollout of sports gambling is expected in early October, when both tribal casinos and the Connecticut Lottery Corporation launch their own online sportsbook platforms.
Online sports betting was expected to begin with a soft-launch on Oct. 7, but DCP spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt said Thursday the start date will likely to be pushed back “a couple days,” due to delays to last-minute approvals for online gaming.
“We’re still working really hard to get things up and running statewide and online as quick as possible,” Krasselt said. “We want to get it right.”
In the meantime, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Chairman Rodney A. Butler said he expected the opening of the sportsbook at Foxwoods to draw several thousand gamblers to the casino this weekend. Butler said he anticipated the NFL and the upcoming MLB playoffs to be early drivers of wagers.
“This weekend, with the Buccaneers and Patriots, that’s going to be the most heavily-betted game that we’ll see probably for the whole season,” Butler said.
Around midday Thursday, a handful of gamblers were testing out the betting kiosks set up in the Race Book at Foxwoods. Above them, several large screens broadcast the betting lines for this weekend’s college football games as well as ESPN broadcasts.
Todd Moore drove from his home in Rhode Island to check out the sportsbook after hearing betting would open on Thursday. Describing himself as an “average player,” he said he placed his first and only bet of the day on his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, to beat the Washington Nationals this weekend.
While online gambling is legal in Rhode Island — along with nearby New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — Moore said he preferred coming to Connecticut for the casino atmosphere.
“Before this, I bet online, you know, offshore and stuff like that because you had no way to put a bet in here in Connecticut,” Moore said.
Another gambler, Mike Avery, of Griswold, was more focused on the NFL after placing bets on the Cincinnati Bengals in Thursday Night Football, as well as on Tom Brady and the Bucs. Avery said he and his friends make annual trips to Las Vegas at the start of the NFL season and he was looking forward to shorter trips to bet on games throughout the season.
“Just the games weekly, it’s tough to get out there, you can't fly out to Vegas every week,” Avery said. “So, it’s good to have it here in Connecticut, 20 minutes down the road from my house.”
State lawmakers voted to legalize sports gambling earlier this year with Lamont’s approval. The law is expected to generate $28 million in revenues to the state during the first year of expanded gaming, though Lamont said Thursday he anticipated that number could grow to $100 million after several years.
In addition to online gaming and sportsbooks operated by the tribal casinos, the law gives the Connecticut Lottery Corporation the right to operate internet-based lottery games and as many as 15 sports betting locations, including in Hartford and Bridgeport. The lottery’s retail locations are also expected to open in early October.
Earlier this month, DCP launched an online portal for problem gamblers to voluntarily exclude themselves from online and iGaming platforms, as well as at in-person gambling locations.
Lamont said he realized early in his administration that years of “unfinished business,” and unsuccessful efforts to legalize sports betting had left Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun at a disadvantage as other states legalized online and in-person sports gambling. That disadvantage grew wider during the pandemic, Lamont said, as gambling mostly moved online.
“It wasn’t one of my big priorities to tell you the truth,” Lamont said. “But again, the time was right, the world was going virtual, I want the casinos here to thrive and it means real revenues for the state, so we put it on the front burner.”.
Once online gaming is fully up and running, Butler said it will likely dominate the state’s share of online sports betting. As regular patrons return to in-person gaming at the casinos, Butler said the retail sportsbooks will likely comprise about one-fifth of revenues for sports betting.
“This is what makes sense, not only for the Pequot, but for the state of Connecticut, and really for the gaming industry at large,” Butler said. “We have to migrate to sports betting, and we have to get online, every other industry is going there.”
Both of the state’s casinos partnered with giants in online sports gambling to help set up their retail sportsbooks. Foxwoods’ sportsbook is partnered with DraftKings, while Mohegan Sun is aligned with FanDuel.
Those operations launched Thursday at temporary locations while the two casinos work to build permanent sportsbooks complete with dining options, bars and dozens of screens to showcase games. Combined, the casinos said they planned to hire upwards of 150 new employees at their retail sportsbooks.
At Mohegan Sun, Lamont was joined Thursday by two former NFL players, Darius Butler of the Patriots and Wayne Chrebet of the New York Jets, who placed the second and third legal bets in the state on their respective former teams.
Jeff Hamilton, president and general manager at Mohegan Sun, said the casino plans to open its permanent sportsbook location in time for the Super Bowl on Feb. 13. Foxwoods’ permanent location was under construction Thursday with plans to open by mid-November, according to casino president Jason Guyot.
For the time being, state law prohibits either casino from taking bets on the University of Connecticut Huskies or other in-state school athletic programs. Butler, the Mashantucket Pequot chairman and former Huskies defensive back, said he hopes lawmakers revisit the prohibition in future sessions.