UPDATED: Connecticut Senate approves gaming-expansion bill, sends it to governor

May 26, 2021 12:00 am • Last Updated: May 27, 2021 8:16 pm

By Brian Hallenbeck
Day Staff Writer

In a vote whose outcome seemed a foregone conclusion prior to 80 minutes of debate, the state Senate approved the gaming-expansion bill Tuesday minutes before midnight, voting 28 to 6 to authorize the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the Connecticut Lottery Corp. to provide in-person and online sports wagering.

The measure also allows the tribes to offer online casino gaming and fantasy sports and the lottery to offer online keno and the online sale of draw-games tickets.

“I look forward to signing this legislation into law, which is in the best interests of the State of Connecticut and its citizens,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement issued shortly after the vote.

Once signed, the law will be sent to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, which will have to approve the underlying state-tribal gaming agreements that formed the basis of the legislation. State and tribal officials have said the timetable for approval could enable sports betting in Connecticut to commence during the upcoming NFL season.

The House of Representatives had approved the bill five days earlier by a vote of 122 to 21.

Tuesday night’s debate began at 10:35 p.m. near the end of a daylong Senate session.

“I expect this to take about five minutes,” Sen. Cathy Osten, the Sprague Democrat, said at the outset.

Instead, senator after senator chose to speak, with opponents of the bill dominating much of the discussion.

Osten, a leading proponent of gaming legislation and a staunch backer of the tribes, whose respective casinos — Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — are located in her district, summarized the bill, which she said updates Connecticut’s gaming landscape for the first time since the mid-1990s, when Foxwoods opened. Osten spoke in place of Sen. Dennis Bradley, a Bridgeport Democrat indicted earlier in the day by a federal grand jury investigating the financing of his 2018 Senate campaign. Bradley was stripped of his co-chairmanship of the Public Safety and Security Committee, the panel that oversees gaming legislation. Osten is vice chairwoman.

Some opponents of the bill flagged a provision that prohibits the tribes from developing an East Windsor casino for at least a decade while others questioned whether the legislation adequately addresses gambling addiction and provides enough funding for problem-gambling services.

Sen. Saud Anwar, a South Windsor Democrat whose district includes East Windsor, proposed an amendment eliminating mention of the East Windsor casino from the bill. He said it was wrong for the state and the tribes to change course without involving legislators and local officials in the move. The proposed amendment failed in a voice vote.

Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican whose district borders East Windsor, also felt the East Windsor provision was unfair to the town’s officials and residents. He joined Sen. Tony Hwang, a Fairfield Republican, in raising concerns about the addictive quality of online gaming, which Kissel called “a brave new world.”

Hwang, a longtime opponent of gaming expansion, a subject the legislature has grappled with for years, said he was concerned that lawmakers had not spent enough time studying the potential societal costs of legalized sports betting and online gaming. He cited the experience of New Jersey, which saw a marked increase in problem gambling after it authorized online gaming in 2013.

“I hope we don’t come back here in 10, 15 years and ask ourselves, ‘Did we make a mistake? Did we release a scourge?’” Hwang said.

Anwar, Kissel and Hwang voted against the bill.

Sen. Mae Flexer, a Windham Democrat who voted for the bill, said she was conflicted but the economic gains the gaming expansion would provide for tribal members and employees outweighed her concerns about gambling addiction. She said Massachusetts has stronger problem-gambling programs in place than those outlined in the Connecticut legislation.

“This is one of the toughest votes I’ve ever had to take,” Flexer said.

The bill requires the tribes and the lottery to contribute 13.75% of their gross sports-betting revenues to the state’s General Fund and for the tribes to contribute 18% of their online casino gaming revenues to the state. The latter percentage jumps to 20% after the first five years of the tribes' 10-year agreement with the state, which can be extended for another five years.

The legislation also requires each of the tribes to provide $500,000 a year for problem-gambling services.

“This bill represents years of work to expand gaming in our state,” Osten said. “And it’s important to note that this bill is not just about updating our gaming compacts to reflect modern gambling trends. This bill is also about jobs and businesses and revenue and the economy not only in southeastern Connecticut but all throughout Connecticut, because that's where the employees of these two casinos (Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun) live. This bill is also about recognizing and honoring Connecticut’s Native American history and two of our largest employers in the state.”

The bill’s authorization of fantasy sports has caused some confusion, since it would require that operators like DraftKings and FanDuel be licensed as of July 1, the legislation’s effective date. A state licensing structure would not be in place by then.

DraftKings already has agreed to partner with Foxwoods on the casino’s on-site and online sports-betting operations.

Another potential fly in the ointment involves Sportech, the state’s authorized off-track betting operator, which has threatened to sue over being left out of the negotiations that led to the gaming-expansion agreement between the tribes and the state. The deal allows the lottery to operate up to 15 retail sports-betting locations, including in Bridgeport and Hartford, and allows the lottery to sublicense any of the locations to Sportech.

The legislation, however, does not require the lottery choose Sportech as an operator, and the lottery has been soliciting requests for proposals from various commercial vendors.

“Prohibiting Sportech ... from expanded betting and gaming opportunities while granting exclusive rights to the Tribes, we believe, would subject the bill to strict scrutiny under constitutional challenge, ultimately leading to the unraveling of this expanded gaming initiative within Connecticut,” Richard McGuire, Sportech’s chief executive officer, said in a statement issued last week, prior to the House vote.

“Sportech and its legal experts are confident that, if it is forced to challenge the bill to protect its employees and investments in the State, courts will hold that this bill violates the Equal Protection Clauses of the United States and Connecticut constitutions, and the Emoluments Clause of the state Constitution,” he said.

McGuire said Sportech and the Lamont administration had been negotiating a solution that could be adopted without disrupting the legislation. On Wednesday, a spokeswoman said Sportech could not comment on the specifics of the ongoing talks.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com