Sports betting is coming to Connecticut. But when exactly
it starts depends on who you ask.
The original target date to bring sports betting to the
state was Oct. 7. Rob Simmelkjaer, the chair of the Connecticut Lottery Board,
says they could do a “soft launch” for sports betting as early as Sept. 30, and
submitted an application to the state Department of Consumer Protection in
order to do so.
It would only be available online through a website or an
app. In-person betting should launch around the same time.
Three locations -- Bobby V's in Stamford and Windsor Locks,
as well as Sports Haven in New Haven -- will have in-person betting initially,
and by late October, another seven Winners locations will come online.
Simmelkjaer says he hopes a location in Bridgeport will be
“up and running…perhaps as early as the end of October.”
Sports betting could also launch early at Connecticut's two
casinos. Those casinos, as soon as they are licensed, could offer bets on site.
"I think you're going to have sort of a soft opening
in very early October and formally by Oct. 7,” stated Gov. Ned Lamont.
The other side of the issue is online casino games. Due to
having more regulations attached to them, they could take a few more weeks to
launch.
The convenience of betting on your phone brings danger
too for problem gamblers. Simmelkjaer says this problem can be resolved by
“self-exclusion.”
"We are going to have things in place to monitor
gaming behavior and to send something, like an email, to someone who has lost a
lot of money,” he says.
The one guaranteed winner in all this is the state of
Connecticut. Its cut is expected to be $28 million in just the first few
months.