Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont’s budget message last week included this statement about the need to “enact new sources of revenues, such as sports betting and internet wagering.” Although he left sports betting off of his biennial budget proposal he characterized it as one of the “building blocks for a balanced budget in the future.”
The governor, when he was running for the job last year, said he wanted to go after revenues from sports betting—calling it a “priority” and the sale of recreational pot to cut property taxes.
The state has a $3.2 billion budget deficit.
The General Assembly’s joint Public Safety and Security Committee will be holding a hearing on four gaming bills. One of these concerns sports betting, and second sports betting and online gaming and keno.
State Senator Cathy Osten, who has also introduced a bill dealing with the ability of the state’s two gaming tribes to build a commercial casino in East Windsor, has chosen to separate that issue from sports betting by tackling sports book in a separate bill. Her bill, S 665 was co-sponsored by nine senators, including Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney.
Her bill would allow the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans to offer sports betting at Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun and through mobile devices such as Smartphones anywhere in the state. The same bill would empower the Connecticut Lottery Corp. to offer online keno “pursuant to agreements” with the tribes.
Some other lawmakers favor a “comprehensive” approach to all of the various gaming issues now under discussion. One of them is Rep. Joe Verrengia, co-chairman of \the public safety committee, who also wants to create a gaming commission to oversee all gaming in the state.
Verrengia, told Legal Sports Report: “I’ve noticed a vast difference between the previous governor and Gov. Lamont.” He added, “His office reached out to me a number of times thus far to discuss sports betting, unlike the previous governor who was on the sidelines until the 11th hour.”
Now that sports betting is again on the table a representative of Major League Baseball former baseball player and manager Bobby Valentine visited Hartford.
A necessary element to passing a sports book bill is for the new governor to reach an accord ahead of passage with the Pequots and the Mohegans to renegotiate their tribal state gaming compacts. That is something the previous governor, Dannel P. Malloy, was unable to do last year.
Some state officials have projected that sports betting could be a $100 million a year business in the state, with from $8 million to $20 million going to the state, depending on how much it taxes it.
That is a paltry sum compared to the $273 million the two tribes paid the state last year, their 25 percent share of slots revenue. No official wants to endanger that source of income for sports betting.
Both tribes say they have begun negotiations with Lamont. “It is our belief that we cannot do anything that puts these agreements in jeopardy,” Ray Pineault, the president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, commented last week.
Adding a complication is the ownership by the tribe of WNBA and professional indoor lacrosse teams. Pineault told reporters that he would support not allowing betting on these teams at any sports betting facilities.
University of Connecticut Athletic Director David Benedict urged legislators to ban wagers on his college’s athletic games.
The Connecticut Lottery Corp. and OTB companies, and even sports bars say they want a place at the same table. The latter was the reason for Valentine’s visit. He owns two sports bars that offer off-track betting on racing and jai alai. He would like to add sports betting.
Valentine said, “If you can make the change to offer legal and safe sports betting for your constituents, then let’s go. It’s game time.” Valentine has partnered with New Haven-based Sportech PLC in the hopes of offering sports betting.
“Since the legalization of sports betting in some nearby states, I’ve even heard of restaurant patrons driving to New Jersey to place a legal bet and then driving back home to Connecticut to watch the game,” Valentine told lawmakers. “To me, it’s this simple: Why would the state continue to allow its consumers to be exploited by illegal betting operators or allow other states to take away the taxes Connecticut could be earning on legal sports betting?”
Greg Smith, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Lottery Corp told the Boston Herald, “Our estimates show that we will return about four to five times as much money per dollar wagered as any other operator.” He added, “This is because, just like a lottery game, we would give the state all of the profits the Lottery generates from sports betting, as opposed to a small return on profits that the casinos or commercial operators would pay.”
Also testifying were representatives from DraftKings, which operates sports wagering in New Jersey and would like to do the same in Connecticut. Once again lobbyists from Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association called for an “integrity fee,” i.e. a share of sports wagers—to protect players.
When a governor publishes his proposed budget that begins negotiations between the chief executive and the legislature that could take until the end of the legislative session on June 9.
