The Connecticut House’s Public Safety Committee March 24 approved of a basket of four sports betting and online gaming bills negotiated between Governor Ned Lamont and the state’s two gaming tribes. A casino in Bridgeport is also included in the bills. The legislation now heads to the Senate and the House.
The bills were the result of years of negotiations between the governor and the Mohegan Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Committee Chairwoman Maria Horn commented, “This has been a long time coming.”
The hope is that sports betting can begin in time for the 2021 NFL season.
Besides sports gaming and online gaming, the committee approved lottery and keno on mobile platforms, a tribal casino resort in Bridgeport and specifically scuttled the controversial East Windsor satellite casino the tribes were authorized to build several years ago. The legislation includes a prohibition on coaches and athletes betting on sports they take part in.
The governor estimates the state will rake in tens of millions of dollars annually from the new gaming tax revenues. The ten year pact (which can be expandable by another five years) calls for a 13.75 percent tax on sports betting and 18 percent tax on iGaming for five years, increasing to 20 percent thereafter. The tribes say this could be as much as $80 million a year for the state.
The Connecticut Lottery, besides offering online sports betting, will be authorized to create as many as 15 retail sports betting outlets.
There was some opposition from legislators representing the area that includes East Windsor. Others opposed limiting sports betting to the tribes and the Connecticut Lottery Corp.
The East Windsor casino was problematic from the start because, being 14 miles from the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, it sparked such a ferocious scorched earth opposition from MGM in the courts and politically that the tribes were never able to actually start work on it. Market saturation also played a hand in the casino never being built.
Other lawmakers objected to the tribes being given a monopoly on developing a casino in Bridgeport, while excluding commercial gaming operators, such as MGM, which several years ago made a major lobbying effort to sell a casino in the state’s largest city. Today there are no MGM lobbyists in the state capital.
The Senate chairman of the committee, Senator Dennis Bradley, who represents Bridgeport, commented, “I’m not under any illusion that it’s not going to happen overnight, but we’re just trying to get the wheels going to make it happen. This is just the first legislative step.”
During the press conference held outside Norwich City Hall, when Lamont and the tribes and their ally Senator Cathy Osten, and the congressman who represents the area, Joe Courtney, announced the agreement.
Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler observed that new revenue would help stabilize the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. This was demonstrated by states that have already legalized sports betting. “It stabilized their economies during the pandemic, but pre-pandemic, it strengthened them,” he said.
He explained how mobile sports betting would benefit the tribes by expanding their customer base: “That’ll drive foot traffic to the property,” he said. “You know, the western edge of the state is two and a half hours away. That’s a long drive to come to Foxwoods or Mohegan. So in the meantime, when you’re not visiting us and enjoying yourselves on property, you can be doing it from the comfort of your home.”
Speaking of the results of the negotiations, Lamont said, “We felt that both teams came out ahead for the betterment of all.”
Butler added, “Governor, we had our moments throughout this process. And I really do appreciate the fact that you stuck with it. There are many times where you could have walked away. I mean, you probably should have walked away, as well as myself and Chairman Gessner, but we all had cooler heads at the table.”
Assuming that the bills are passed by both chambers and signed by Lamont, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs will need to approve of it, as its imprimatur is required on all state tribal compacts.
Both tribes need the additional money. Each has about $2 billion in debt and the Pequots recently had to explain missing a $250 million payment to its lenders. They recently extended a forbearance agreement that the tribe has operated under since defaulting on $2.3 billion in 2009.
The tribes are aiming at getting sports betting up and running by the fall to take advantage of the biggest season of sports betting: the NFL. Butler said that once federal approval happens: “And then from the back end, from a technology perspective, we’re both ready to launch.”
Lamont called on the legislature to move quickly to make that happen: “I want the Legislature to move this thing forward as fast as we can – a good clean bill, simple and ready to go. I think we have some folks down at the Department of Interior ready to move this along.” He added, “Why not? Let’s get going for this fall.”
House Speaker Matt Ritter acknowledged the urgency: “We know we’d like to do it in April because that gives them an opportunity to be up and running for the NFL season, which we know is important from a marketing standpoint and getting people signed up.” He added, ‘So if we can do it, we’d like to.”
While the tribes and the state may be happy with the new deal, the city of East Windsor is not. First Selectman Jason Bowsza declared, “I think that what we have now is a 30-acre parcel of commercially marketable property between highway exits. I think that there needs to be something meaningful to happen to that.”
He was talking about the former Showcase Cinemas property near I-91 that many now believe will remain vacant for a decade.
Butler is unhappy about that too. “For me the commitment we’ve had to East Windsor and our belief in that project quite frankly was the most difficult part of agreeing to some type of delay as a part of this deal.” He noted that the tribe spent $20 million on the project.
He noted that the governor had insisted on it because of “legal concerns,” which refers to MGM’s continued—and effective—opposition.
Bowsza added, “What we don’t want to have is people driving by the highway seeing vacant commercial properties.” He said the state has an obligation to help develop the property.
Rep. Carol Hill, who voted against the change, agrees: “I agree with probably everything else in that bill except the piece that eliminates the casino.”
