In Connecticut, Keno is an orphan, in that no one is willing to claim parentage. But while no one but the Connecticut Lottery publically likes it or wants to keep it, it looks increasingly likely that it won’t be repealed as the legislature’s 2014 session enters its final two weeks.
If that happens the electronic lottery game will soon start selling tickets.
Earlier this year Senate and House leaders called for, and Governor Dannel P. Malloy promised to sign, a repeal of keno, which was passed in a because of a perception that extra funding was needed. When the budget turned to have a projected surplus in January, political leaders began calling for repeal.
The talk of repeal got so much play in the press that many in the public don’t expect that the game will be rolled out.
However the same leaders are sounding less confident of repeal.
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., said recently, “It’s in the budget until somebody finds an alternative funding source.”
A key committee, the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, has refused to pass a repeal. Co-Chairman, Senator John Fonfara, predicts that the game won’t be repealed.
Keno was added to the budget towards the end of last year’s legislative session. No one knows precisely who added Keno, which the lottery says will put $26 million a year into state coffers. However the 2013 budget requires the lottery to offer the game once the state negotiates profit sharing with the Mohegan and Pequot tribes, operators of two of the largest Indian casinos in the U.S.
The tribes consider the game to be a form of slot machine, which their tribal state gaming compacts give them exclusive rights to offer. The lottery disagrees. Getting the state and tribe on the same page is important to the state, which collected $612.5 million from gambling last year.
Senator Andrea L. Stillman, quoted by the Connecticut Mirror, commented last week, “I think the perception is out there that keno is gone because of the comments of the leading members of the legislature and of the governor.”
However, Frank Farricker, the chairman of the lottery, in February asked lawmakers not to repeal the game. It’s beginning to look like he will get his way.
