Spurred by Real Money Online Casinos, Connecticut Announces 1st Gaming Revenue

The numbers are in for Connecticut’s inaugural month of online gaming and mobile sports wagering.

October sports betting handle was posted at $54,641,474, with $54,099,628 (or 99%) coming from mobile apps and devices, according to official numbers released by Governor Ned Lamont’s office late Wednesday.

From Oct. 12-31, the state collected $1,195,357 million from real money online casino wagering, which will be deposited into the state’s general fund. That figure more than doubled the $512,951 in taxes that the state collected from sports betting.

Sports betting total taxable gaming revenue was $3.73 million ($3.52 million online, $212,705 retail). The retail sports betting handle was $541,846.

Mobile sports betting apps went live with a soft launch on Oct. 12.

Keep an eye out as these figures are bound to shoot up in November, when a full month of wagering will be tabulated.

Connecticut Sports Betting

Individual online sports betting handles are: Mohegan Sun ($26 million), Mashantucket ($19.8 million), Connecticut Lottery online ($3.25 million) and CT Lottery retail ($542K).

“This first revenue collection for our state reinforces the process and approach by my administration when it came to ensuring our sports betting and iCasino platforms worked seamlessly for consumers,” Gov. Lamont said in the statement. “We worked tirelessly with our casino and state partners to ensure Connecticut consumers would have positive user experiences across platforms and that is exactly what these results illustrate. We’re off to a great start with this new gaming marketplace and we’re looking forward to years of success.”

The state’s online casino numbers posted on the state's Department of Consumer Protection website, also fared well with a handle of $312.86 million; online casino total taxable gaming revenue was $6.641 million.

The payment due to the state is 13.75% of gross gaming revenue for sports wagering, and 18% for online casino gaming until 2026, when it will increase to 20%.

The state does not collect payments on sports wagers placed on tribal lands.

A portion of that number surely came from New York bettors crossing state lines since mobile sports betting there will not launch until late this month at the earliest, or certainly before the Super Bowl on Feb. 13. The crossing into Connecticut actually could continue beyond that, considering the 51% tax rate being levied in New York.

An October study by GeoComply, a geolocation security company, pointed out the state-hopping factor.

“We’ve learned from the New Jersey experience that New Yorkers are clearly motivated to travel locally to bet on sites where proper consumer protections have been put in place that safeguard the integrity of their wager,” said Chad Kornett, vice president of Global Government Relations for GeoComply. "Connecticut looks to be quickly following a similar pattern: Easily accessed from the New York City area, GeoComply’s data shows 38% of Connecticut’s wagering activity has originated from the southwestern corner of the state along the I-95 corridor.”