Connecticut’s Delayed Online Sports Betting “Soft Launch” Begins Tuesday

• Starting Tuesday, Connecticut Bettors Can Begin Making Sports Wagers Online
• Foxwoods Casino and Mohegan Sun Began Retail Sports Betting on Sept. 30
• Tribes Will Pay 13.75% Tax on Sports Wagering, About $19 million in First Year

Starting Tuesday, Connecticut Bettors Can Begin Making Sports Wagers Online

The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) announced Friday that sports gamblers in the Constitution State can begin wagering on their phones, tablets and any other device that connects to the internet beginning on Tuesday.

Original plans had the “soft launch” date for CT online sports betting scheduled for last Thursday, October 7, but as we reported in CT Sports Betting Launches with Gov. Lamont Making Ceremonial First Bets that date was delayed.

Those “last-minute approvals to online gaming” that still needed to get done have apparently been checked off the DCP to-do list because starting on Tuesday, 750 individuals will take part in this much-anticipated soft launch.

Foxwoods Casino and Mohegan Sun are now officially authorized to begin establishing those 750 new customer accounts, although the two operators have been open for in-person sports betting for over a week now.

Foxwoods Casino and Mohegan Sun Began Retail Sports Betting on Sept. 30

On the last day of September, both the Foxwoods Casino and the Mohegan Sun opened temporary sportsbooks that allowed for in-person/retail sports betting to begin in Connecticut, although there was a slight hiccup that resulted from that event.

During the opening ceremonies, Governor Ned Lamont placed his state’s first legal sports wager on the Connecticut Sun WNBA team, but unfortunately, Gov. Lamont’s Ceremonial Wager Triggers Suspension of WNBA Betting at Mohegan Sun thanks to a potential conflict of interest due the tribe owning that team.

Regardless of the inevitable speed bumps involved, Connecticut retail and online sports betting has begun, and in an email, Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, shared his excitement.

This has been a remarkable implementation schedule, from legislative approval in the spring to retail and online gaming this fall. We’ve made it to the finish line, and we’re excited to finally launch.

Now Connecticut will begin to tap into a new revenue stream into which plenty of other states have already waded.

Tribes Will Pay 13.75% Tax on Sports Wagering, About $19 Million in First Year

The reality is that Nutmeg State bettors were already making millions of dollars’ worth of sports wagers, only they were using offshore sportsbooks or traveling to neighboring states (Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware) where that activity was already legalized.

Now that same sports gambling activity in Connecticut is legal, so it can be regulated and taxed at 13.75%, a new revenue flow that is expected to bring in about $19 million in the first year and $23 million in tax revenue in the second year.

Gov. Lamont has made his own financial predictions clear, recently telling the media:

Within four or five years I think we’d like to think it means about $100 million in revenues to the state all in.

It’s an existing money flow that, redirected inward, can now begin to benefit Connecticut tribes and residents instead of benefitting those other sportsbooks who live and operate outside the state.