MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG Gambling photo op: Photographers crowd Gov. Ned Lamont after he made the first sports bet at Mohegan Sun: $50 on the Sun. Sports betting in Connecticut kicked off Thursday with Gov. Ned Lamont putting $50 on the Connecticut Sun, $20 on the New York Yankees and $20 on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs. “I never would bet against Tom Brady,” said Lamont, a first-term governor, self-described sports junkie and self-evident neophyte gambler. He referred to “casting” his first bets, a good verb for voting or fly fishing, not so much for making bets. His wager on the ..read more

MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG James Gessner Jr., the Mohegan tribal chairman, shows Gov. Ned Lamont kiosks that will take sports bets. FanDuel is the Mohegan’s sports betting vendor. Lamont was at Mohegan last week to address a union meeting. The debut of legal sports betting and online casino gambling in Connecticut is days or perhaps weeks away, but a precautionary tool went live Thursday: A chance for people to ban themselves from virtual gambling even before it starts. A voluntary self-exclusion program operated by the Department of Consumer Protection will enable anyone to bar themsel ..read more

RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE A Rush Street Interactive logo, the vendor chosen by the CT Lottery to operate its sports book. Would the inability to make legal bets on how Tom Brady will perform on the opening night of the NFL season constitute an emergency? Connecticut’s governor and some lawmakers would seem to think so. The legislature’s Regulations Review Committee committee voted 9-4 Tuesday to adopt emergency regulations geared to speeding the arrival of sports betting and online casino games in Connecticut, as authorized by a law passed in May. “The passage of the regulations for sports wa ..read more

RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE A logo for Rush Street Interactive, the CT Lottery’s new sports betting partner. CT Lottery introduced its sports betting partners Thursday, but don’t bet on Connecticut being ready to take wagers for the opening of the NFL season on Sept. 9. Rush Street Interactive will run the sports book, guaranteeing a minimum of $170 million for the lottery over 10 years, and Sportech will be licensed to take sports wagers at 10 off-track betting locations, including its Bobby V’s sports bars in Stamford and Windsor Locks. Rush Street has a record of being first to the market wh ..read more

MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG Sen. Cathy Osten, whose district is home to two casinos, outlines the expansion bill. Debate was relatively brief. At right, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff speaks to staff. A bill legalizing sports betting and online casino games and lottery sales in Connecticut won final passage late Tuesday night on a 28-6 vote in the Senate, an effort to boost state revenues and help casino employment rebound in the state’s struggling southeastern corner. Passage came after a relatively brief debate, an anticlimactic ending to a multi-year push to expand the customer base ..read more

MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG Reps. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, and Rep. Greg Howard, R-North Stonington, celebrate bipartisan passage of the bill they brought out to the House. Connecticut reached a tipping point in its long, complicated relationship with gambling Thursday as the House voted 122-21 for a bill that would make casino games, sports betting and lottery sales available to any adult with an internet connection. After years of false starts, the measure is the first comprehensive update of gambling laws since the state’s two federally recognized tribes opened Foxwoods Resorts Casino ..read more

Ever play fantasy sports in Connecticut? By the estimate of DraftKings and FanDuel, about 600,000 of you have done so over the past decade, even if their business operates in a grayish area of state law and never has been licensed or taxed. There is no gray, however, in the gambling bill scheduled to be debated Thursday in the House of Representatives. Not only would it legalize sports betting and online casino gambling, it explicitly outlines a licensing process for fantasy sports. Ironically enough, once the bill becomes law, DraftKings and FanDuel would be forced to cease operations in Con ..read more

MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG Off the gambling floor at MGM Springfield its the GameSense info center. Aisha Shambley, left, and Amy Gabrila. SPRINGFIELD — Late-afternoon gamblers strolling past the baccarat table ignored its sole player, a brooding dark-haired man whose gaze rarely left the table. He wore a white N95 mask, purple nitrile gloves and a lightweight hoodie the color of his chips, a bluish gray. On her rounds at MGM Springfield, Amy Gabrila noticed him right away. The golden RESERVED placard on the table marked him as a high roller, as did the color and quantity of his chips ..read more

MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG Gov. Ned Lamont and Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket Pequot chairman, left with a laugh and a fist bump. Behind the smiles, tension remained. But Gov. Ned Lamont and the leaders of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations gathered Thursday to publicly celebrate coming to terms on how to bring sports betting and online gaming to Connecticut. All pledged to work for passage by the General Assembly of a bill codifying their pact, then seek its ratification by the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs — all in time for the tribes and CT ..read more

Cloe Poisson :: CTMirror.org Slots at Mohegan Sun, where every other machine is closed to promote social distancing during the pandemic. Connecticut inched closer to legalizing sports betting and online gambling Wednesday with votes by a legislative committee to send gaming-expansion bills to the floors of the Senate and House of Representatives. The Public Safety and Security Committee action places before the full General Assembly a deal recently struck by the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont with the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, the tribal nations with exclusive rights to casino g ..read more