Daily fantasy sports, too
DraftKings has announced partnership with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation for both sports betting and daily fantasy sports in Connecticut. DFS will launch on Sunday, December 13, while sports betting will have to wait until the pastime is actually legalized in the state.
State Rep. Sean Scanlon, who will soon be the chairman of the House Finance Committee, told the Hartford Courant that sports betting is “one of my biggest priorities” and that he plans to see it legalized in 2021. He sees its lack of regulation to this a point as a “missed opportunity,” especially considering neighboring Rhode Island and New York, as well as nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania have already legalized sports betting.
Need to stay on the tribes’ good side
The situation surrounding sports betting in Connecticut is tricky. Governor Ned Lamont wants it legalized, as does much of the legislature, as do both the Mashantucket and Mohegan tribes, who have exclusivity over gambling in the state and operate Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, respectively.
The problem is that the compact between the tribes and the state directs the tribes to pay Connecticut 25% of their slots revenue in exchange for exclusivity. The government agreed to not allow any other casino gambling in the state.
The governor, though, wants to let the state lottery operate sports betting and permit it at off-track betting locations. The tribes see this as a violation of their compacts, but the compacts were written while sports betting was still illegal on a federal level, so it wasn’t even a consideration at the time. They believe it falls under the “casino gambling” umbrella, the governor and lawmakers don’t necessarily agree.
The tribes have threatened to stop paying the slots tax if the state allows other sports betting operators.
MGM wants in
At the same time, both the state government and the tribes would like to build more casinos in Connecticut, but not on tribal land. The idea would be that the tribes would operate the casinos, but MGM Resorts International thinks this is crap and that they should be up for bids. Both the tribes and MGM have threatened lawsuits if things don’t go their way.
Governor Lamont wants to figure things out.
“I want to put forward something that works, that doesn’t result in litigation, that gets us off the dime,” he said after a daily COVID-19 briefing. “We’ve been talking about this for close to a decade in this state. And I think Connecticut ought to participate and it ought to be led by the tribes.”
It is possible that one proposal would give the rights to general online gambling to the tribes, while opening up sports betting to both tribes and other operators. The governor would not say if this was a real consideration. A bill earlier this year, supported by Lamont, would have allowed the lottery, tribes, and off-track betting sites all operate sportsbooks.
