Connecticut House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said last week that he has the votes to adopt a sports betting bill in the special session that has been called by Governor Dannel P. Malloy.
He told the Hartford Courant, “We feel comfortable, at least in the House chamber, that sports betting is ready to move forward.’’ He added, “What that looks like and where it’s available is what we’ll have to negotiate after the compact issues are worked out.’’
The governor is negotiating with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes over how to divide up sports betting. The tribes insist that their tribal state gaming compacts give them a monopoly on casino gaming, and they extend the definition of casino gaming to includes sports betting. The state’s attorney general, George Jepsen, disagrees. Lots of state lawmakers agree with him.
The governor is trying to square the circle between those positions.
The existing compacts require the tribes to pay 25 of slots revenues to the state in return for exclusivity. Other stakeholders in the division of the spoils include Off Track Betting operations and the state Lottery.
Now all that is needed is a definite date for the special session.
However, House Majority leader Matt Ritter says a big decision to be made is how many locations bets could be made at. Some envision every retail operation that sells Lottery tickets being a potential “bookie.”
Although the speaker previously called for a comprehensive gaming strategy being adopted, Aresimowicz says that is probably no longer needed. “The picture that was unclear during session has gotten more clear,’’ he said last week. “I don’t know that the study is really needed any more. We have East Windsor. That’s going to be up and running now, soon enough, barring some court challenge. And the sports betting, we’ll be doing that. So those were the two big ones that were out there. … The picture is a lot clearer than it was in session.’’
