Connecticut Lottery Corp. launches first retail sports betting site. Another 14 gambling locations are planned.
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Connecticut on Monday continued a dramatic expansion in gambling with the launch of the state’s first retail sports betting site in New Haven.
Gov. Ned Lamont kicked the gambling off with a particularly ambitious wager: a $20 bet for the Giants to beat Kansas City on Monday night next week.
“I can’t wait. This has been a long time coming. It’s about time,’' Lamont said at a press conference at Sports Haven in New Haven, where gamblers are now able to place bets in person on sports and casino games.
“We are up. We are operating. We are going to be casting bets,’' Lamont said. “This is not some way to make a lot of money fast. This is a way to have a little fun.”
Monday’s opening follows by less than a week the start of casino gambling, lottery sales and sports betting on apps, laptops, tablets and other devices.
And on Sept. 30, sports betting began at Connecticut’s two tribal-owned casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Two other retail sports betting sites are set to open soon at Stamford and Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, followed by other sites at Hartford, Manchester, Milford, New Britain, Norwalk, Torrington and Waterbury. A total of 15 sites are planned, with additional locations in Hartford and Bridgeport to be announced at a later date.
Connecticut is expected to receive $170 million guaranteed revenue over the 10-year contract, but Rob Simmelkjaer, chairman of the Lottery Board, has said he expects more over time.
The lottery is partnering with Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive to run an online sportsbook and Sportech, which already runs off-track-betting outlets in the state, to operate retail gambling venues. Sportech will get a small percentage of online revenue for driving traffic.
Lamont and the General Assembly enacted legislation this year authorizing the broadest expansion of legalized gambling in Connecticut since the two casinos opened in the 1990s. The governor sought what he called a “modernized” gambling industry in Connecticut that recognized the rise of digital technology and to include sports betting that was advancing in other states, denying revenue for Connecticut.
The Lamont administration and the Mohegans, who own and operate the Mohegan Sun, and the Mashantucket Pequots, who run Foxwoods, first had to renegotiate compacts that guaranteed the tribes exclusive gambling rights in exchange for a 25% tax on slot revenue that’s yielded billions of dollars in revenue for the state since the 1990s.
Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.
