Democratic legislators are readying legislation that would enable the launch of a legalized sports betting industry in Connecticut.
According to a Connecticut Mirror report, this effort is coming ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Christie vs. the National Collegiate Athletic Association, where the New Jersey state government has challenged federal law restricting sports betting. The Democratic leaders are anticipating a victory for the states in this case and want to have a regulatory system in place to control sports betting in Connecticut.
“If the court opens up this extremely popular market to the states,” Connecticut should be ready to go from both a regulatory and an operational standpoint,” House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz (D-Berlin) said at a press conference.
Aresimowicz added that the details of the proposed system have not been finalized, but he said that the state would need to discuss the issue with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes before a sports betting industry can be developed. Mashantucket Pequot spokeswoman Lori Potter said that sports betting should be run by the casino-operating tribes, owing to what she dubbed as their “exclusivity agreement” with the state on gaming.
