Connecticut’s House Speaker to Craft Gambling Deal with Tribes

Connecticut’s House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, has held private meetings with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribes, members of the Bridgeport legislative delegation and others in hopes of crafting a complicated bill that could include sports betting, internet gambling and a possible casino in Bridgeport.

“I was not willing to give up on the idea” of a global gambling bill, said Democrat Aresimowicz. “This is like a Hail Mary pass to try to get this to work out.”

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont had been working for months trying to craft a gambling agreement that didn’t violate the state’s revenue-sharing agreement with the two tribes and included new sports betting and internet gambling. In exchange for exclusive rights to certain forms of gambling, the tribes currently provide the state 25% of slot-machine revenues.