Short Summary: Connecticut is somewhat liberal when it comes to gambling laws. In addition to land-based casinos with full offerings operated by the tribes with whom Connecticut works closely. Legal forms of gambling Connecticut include two legal Indian casinos (Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun), parimutuel wagering, charitable gaming, the Connecticut Lottery, online gambling and sports betting. Tracks can theoretically offer live racing, and certainly did in the past, but none currently do. The nearest tracks with live racing and wagering are in New York.
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In general, the State of Connecticut may be one of the more Liberal states, compared to much of America. The Department of Consumer Protection (D) Gaming Division regulates all legal gambling in Connecticut.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) gives federally recognized Indian tribes the “right to regulate gaming activity on Indian lands if the gaming activity is not specifically prohibited by Federal law and is conducted within a state that does not, as a matter of public policy, prohibit such gaming activity”. However, the state and tribe must agree a compact as a prerequisite for conducting certain types of gaming, such as pari-mutuel and casino gaming, which are designated as Class III gaming.
The following forms of gambling are legal within the state:
However, the state does work pretty closely with the tribes as the tribes pay the state a fee (it’s technically not a tax, because the state has no actual taxing jurisdiction on Tribal land) of 25% of all slot revenues. In exchange, the state was not supposed to compete with the tribes who operate two casinos: Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun. Connecticut did a bill to expand gambling to other parts of the state and the tribes were immediately flabbergasted and stated that would invalidate the agreement.
The compacts with the tribes that operate Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun requires the casinos to pay 25 percent of their slot machine revenue to the state. The agreements have brought the state $6.5 billion since the arrival of slots in 1993. In return, the tribes have the exclusive right to operate the lucrative slot machines.
AND:
Slot revenues peaked at $430 million in the 2007 fiscal year and have since fallen to $267 million in the current fiscal year. The revenue is projected to fall to $191 million in the 2018 fiscal year as the tribes face competition in Springfield, Mass., and from places like Aqueduct in Queens, N.Y., and Yonkers Raceway in Westchester County, N.Y.
It was perfectly understandable why the tribes were upset, because the state made all this money for all of those years whilst doing essentially nothing as they don’t even really regulate the tribal gaming.
More than that, it couldn’t come at a worse time as the casinos’ revenues have fallen significantly in the face of Regional competition.
Fortunately, it appears that the state and the Tribes have reached an agreement which enables the tribes own and operate a casino that is located off of Tribal land, but would presumably be bound by the same or similar with the state.
The “satellite” casino is aimed at blunting the competitive threat of MGM Resorts International’s casino and entertainment complex in Springfield, scheduled to open Aug. 24. ers of the expansion say the third casino would help preserve jobs and revenue tied to the state’s casino industry. Each month, the state gets a 25 percent cut of slot revenue from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
In 2015, U.S. casino operator MGM Resorts International Inc sued Connecticut, challenging a law that would permit one of the state’s two Native American tribes to build a casino off reservation land but would not allow MGM to bid for the project.
MGM applied, apparently, for a casino license in Connecticut, but they claim that they were not able to compete for one on equal grounds as the state greatly favored the Tribe.
However, a bit less than a year later a federal judge dismissed the company’s lawsuit to block the state of Connecticut’s 2015 tribal gaming act.
Unfortunately, this is just another one of those cases in which Corporate greed would outweigh common sense. The fact of the matter is that the tribes have kept up their end of the bargain with the State of Connecticut for decades, so they would have reason to complain if the state were to open a casino that competes with their revenue stream. More importantly than that, the state’s side of the deal for 25% of slot revenues was essentially a non-compete clause with the tribes.
Thus, Connecticut would be in a lose-lose situation had the license been awarded to MGM Resorts International. The Tribes could make a very compelling case that they shouldn’t have to pay the State of Connecticut anymore for essentially violating the non-compete clause.
Connecticut conducts a state lottery through the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, which is also called the CT Lottery. This lottery is linked to multi-state jackpots such as Powerball and Mega Millions. Pari-Mutuel wagering is also legal in the state, though there do not seem to be any horse tracks offering live wagering at the moment, though that is also legal for horses. Instead, the Mohegan Sun offers simulcast wagering and places such as Bobby V’s.
In Stamford, Connecticut, are also permitted to offer off-track betting.
Charitable Bingo is permitted in the State of Connecticut, but the tax rate on the charity’s winnings is actually higher than it is in most states. The State of Connecticut cuts out 5% of the win after all the prizes are paid, which is essentially 5% of all direct bingo revenues, which is more than what most other states charge. In fact, some states do not charge anything except for a small license fee.
Online casinos are now legal in the State of Connecticut, which some Connecticut players probably see as good news. The bad news?
There are only two of them.
The two websites are Mohegan Sun Casino and DraftKings (via Foxwoods) as the State of Connecticut will only authorize Internet casinos that have a tie to land casinos already extant within the state, of which there are only two.
If you’re not looking to take advantage of a ton of new player bonuses, such as the ones offered above in our list of recommended casinos, then I suppose it could be worse. However, if you have already done the new player offers at the two Connecticut casinos and your follow-up offers aren’t particularly strong, which they probably won’t be as Connecticut is a small pool of players and there is not much competition in the regulated market, then you are going to need to look elsewhere online for potential advantage plays.
Fortunately, there are a large number of reputable online casinos that are available in the State of Connecticut, so once you have burned out your promotions at the two casinos the state actually does have, we would you recommend you come and check out some of our best picks.
In the meantime, the two casinos that have been authorized to operate within the state have both casino-style games as well as Sportsbook operations. Basically, the sites are the same as DraftKings and Fanduel that you would find anywhere else in the country.
There’s also nothing to worry about for players in the state as Connecticut law would only seem to prohibit operating an online casino that has not been authorized by the state, not playing in one, and the law says, in part:
Professional gambling means accepting or offering to accept, for profit, money, credits, deposits or other things of value risked in gambling, or any claim thereon or interest therein. Without limiting the generality of this definition, the following shall be included: Pool-selling and bookmaking; maintaining slot machines, one-ball machines or variants thereof, pinball machines, which award anything other than an immediate and unrecorded right of replay, roulette wheels, dice tables, or money or merchandise pushcards, punchboards, jars or spindles, in any place accessible to the public; and except as provided in sections 7-169 to 7-186, inclusive, conducting lotteries, gift enterprises, disposal or sale of property by lottery or hazard or policy or numbers games, or selling chances therein; and the following shall be presumed to be included: Conducting any banking game played with cards, dice or counters, or accepting any fixed share of the stakes therein;
In other words, having a gambling operation that has not been authorized by the state.
There haven’t been too many gambling arrests made in the State of Connecticut, but any that we found had to do with sports betting rings or organizers of illegal poker games, so we have uncovered no instance of anyone ever being arrested just for playing an unlicensed and unregulated game, online or otherwise.
With that, if you get tired of the only two regulated websites you have at your disposal and want to try some other bonuses, you have nothing to fear to check out our casinos above.
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Foxwoods Resort Casino
Owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, the Foxwoods is a monolithic structure consisting of more than 5,500 slot machines, video keno and video poker devices as well as over 250 table games. Poker tables are also offered with Foxwoods occasionally hosting major tournaments that bring in professional players from around the world. That should come as no surprise given its status as the third-largest poker room in the world. In addition to a two-story arcade, this location features a huge Tanger Outlets Mall (there are a few of these scattered throughout the country) as well as a hotel consisting of over 2,000 rooms.
Back in the days, the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun had a virtual gridlock on casino gambling in the upper Northeast with virtually no competition whatsoever. At the time, the only major casino destinations in the entire region were Atlantic City and the two tribal casinos in Connecticut. Times have changed and the casino’s revenues have dipped substantially as a result. That is also true for Mohegan Sun. Although the two tribes had plans to open a in East Windsor, the project was abandoned.
Mohegan Sun Casino
Owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe, this casino contains everything that Foxwoods does and also has a racebook for simulcast wagering. There is over 100,000 feet of retail shopping space. Slots, video poker, video keno, table games and live poker can all be found at this casino. There are over 6,500 slot machines as well as over 350 total tables; including live poker.
Mohegan Sun, unfortunately for them, faced the same general problem that Foxwoods did with soaring debt. The size and scope of these two properties was always such that they essentially relied upon being the area’s premier destination casinos as well as having little to no Regional competition. Unfortunately for them, they borrowed heavily just before the 2008, “Great Recession,” with an eye towards an expansion of their premises, and expand they did, but that was followed by revenues immediately plummeting as a result of the recession.
The recovery has been slow and it is increasingly unlikely that the numbers will ever get back to where they were. As we mentioned above, these casinos face increasing Regional competition with new competition popping up in the last fifteen years from Pennsylvania, elsewhere in New York, Delaware, Maine and now Massachusetts. The possibility also remains that the few states that don’t have any Commercial Casinos may eventually legalize and regulate same.
Mohegan Sun branched into some of these states, apparently, they considered the old adage, “If you can’t beat them, them.” In addition to the t effort with the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in East Windsor, Mohegan Sun took over management of Resorts Casino in Atlantic City and also opened Mohegan Sun Pocono in Pennsylvania.
The State of Connecticut is home to a lottery that is, perhaps surprisingly, one of the most popular ones out there in of loss by resident to traditional lottery games.
We suspect that this might be because Connecticut only has two Tribal Casinos (Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun) kind of tucked away in a corner of the state. They do have some card rooms scattered about, but nothing that would really approach anything in the way of actual casino gambling.
While one might not think of Connecticut as necessarily having the biggest cities, it’s important to that it’s a very small (land area) state, so having any cities of any meaningful size is going to significantly increase the population density.
So, we combine two factors to explain the popularity of the state lottery:
1.) Residents of the state are mostly wanting for other (better) ways to gamble.
AND
2.) Because of the population density, most people in the state are going to be convenient to a lottery retailer.
Another thing that should be mentioned about Connecticut is the better than average median income of its residents. Believe it or not, it is actually those higher income earners that make up the lottery’s sales somewhat disproportionally, which makes total sense, even though many people tend to think of the lottery as poor people wasting their money.
Looking at the 2019 Annual Report, we are able to get the sales and prizes for each particular kind of game for the state:
| Game Type | Sales | Prizes | Return to Player |
| Instant Tickets | 736,443,000 | 516,523,000 | 70.14% |
| Play 3 Night | 72,253,000 | 37,311,000 | 51.64% |
| Play 4 Night | 72,656,000 | 29,791,000 | 41.00% |
| Play 3 Day | 54,460,000 | 32,350,000 | 59.40% |
| Play 4 Day | 50,328,000 | 23,472,000 | 46.64% |
| Lotto | 35,032,000 | 18,537,000 | 52.91% |
| Cash 5 | 31,168,000 | 19,794,000 | 63.51% |
| Powerball | 81,446,000 | 40,702,000 | 49.97% |
| Mega Millions | 72,634,000 | 36,466,000 | 50.21% |
| Lucky for Life | 18,872,000 | 13,052,000 | 69.16% |
| Lucky Links | 5,696,000 | 3,680,000 | 64.61% |
| Keno | 102,923,000 | 66,759,000 | 64.86% |
Most games return better than 50% with the Play 4 games and Powerball being the only exception. Mega Millions would typically pay less than 50%, but Connecticut has a somewhat low population compared to other states, so our best guess is this is a sample sizing thing and they had a few winners of second and third top prizes.
Instant tickets return a little better than average (nationwide) coming in at a hair over 70%, overall, but our guess on that is that a disproportionate number of people are buying the higher denomination (and slightly better returning) $10-$30 tickets compared with other states.
In total, Connecticut residents would lose $467,354,000 to the Connecticut State Lottery. Based on an estimated population of 3.565 million for 2019, total losses to the lottery, on a per resident basis, were $131.10.
Overall, we attribute these better than average results to a lack of other gambling options, being #4 for population density and also being #5 for median household income.
Put another way: Residents tend to be convenient to lottery retailers, they have a few extra bucks and they don’t have much in the way of other ways to gamble.
Another thing that we notice is that Connecticut has a very poor returning Keno game that seems to be somewhat popular—considering it did over one hundred million in sales. Most other state lotteries do not offer a Keno game of this nature, and when they do, it’s usually not as popular as this particular one seems to be.
If you live in Connecticut you aren’t allowed to legally own any type of slot machine. Many states let their citizens own antique slot machines but Connecticut is one of five states that completely outlaw slots ownership. For the state with two of the largest casinos in the world this may seem like a hypocritical stand, but that both casinos are owned and operated by Native American Indian tribes.
State laws about gambling and gambling machines or devices usually differ widely between Native American Indians and everyone else.
Just like the other states that limit or outlaw the ownership of slot machines and have a state lottery, the hypocritical nature of gambling laws around the United States is sometimes baffling. Unless you’re a Native American Indian you can’t own anything gambling related, but we’ll sell you lottery tickets offering much worse odds than almost every casino game.
Connecticut legalized sports betting and online gambling in 2021, giving approvals to the two tribal casinos and the Connecticut Lottery to offer this form of entertainment. In partnership with DraftKings and FanDuel, respectively, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun offer betting online and at their casinos. When it comes to the lottery, it collaborates with Rush Street Interactive, offering online betting and sportsbooks at several of the Sportech OTB venues.
Connecticut is one of only a few states in which live greyhound racing is still legal. An effort to illegalize the practice ed the State Senate but failed the House in 2017. As a practical matter, no track offers live greyhound racing, nor has any track for several years.
Shoreline Star Greyhound Park theoretically could operate live greyhound racing, but for the last several years, they have existed only as a simulcast center as part of Winners Connecticut, which all Connecticut OTB falls under.
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On its face, it would seem that Connecticut is restrictive when it comes to gambling, but once you peel back the layers, you realize that they are simply inclined to work with the tribes as much as possible. That makes sense because they can just sit back, collect their 25% of the slot revenues and otherwise not have to worry about anything.
Connecticut is fairly reasonable when it comes to Charitable Gambling, with exception to the fact that the taxes are perhaps a little high at five percent. Social gambling is permitted, provided nobody is taking a vig or offering a game for which there is a house edge. In other words, something like a home poker game with no rake is perfectly fine.
Connecticut also offers a lottery as well as pari-mutuel betting in the form of off-track betting. Horse and dog racing live are both legal, but have not been practiced for several years; presumably because it is not a profitable operation.
The groundbreaking year for the state’s casino market was 2021, when Connecticut greenlighted online gambling and sports betting, following the example of other US states such as New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and many more.
