Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut said in his State of the State address this week that he was open to working on a path to “modernize gaming” in this state. Lamont said this in relation to a pledge that he made to leverage his relationships with neighboring states and tribal partners in a bid to coordinate a response to COVID-19. He also expressed an interest in working on legislature to legalize marijuana.
“Sports betting, internet gaming, and legalized marijuana are happening all around us,” said the Governor. “Let’s not surrender these opportunities to out-of-state markets or even worse, underground markets.”
Governor Lamont’s address came on the heels of a report that his counterpart in New York, Andrew Cuomo was also planning to relax his traditionally tough position against mobile gambling.
While Cuomo has always maintained that New York needs to amend its constitution to adopt mobile sports betting, he is now more open to the idea because of the tough financial issues facing a pandemic-hit state.
Lamont recently rejected a proposal that Connecticut tribes be given temporary authorization to offer online gambling. This doesn’t mean that the tribes haven’t been working behind the scenes to prepare for the day when gambling expansion takes place, however. Last year, Foxwoods signed a partnership deal with DraftKings, and the Mohegan Sun partnered with the Kindred Group.