Connecticut likely will join other states that legalize sports betting after the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door by repealing the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. This state desperately needs the money it could reap from getting in on that action. And sports betting is everywhere, as anyone who has wagered on the Kentucky Derby or filled out a March Madness bracket can attest.
But political leaders shouldn’t confuse the spoils they’ll get from bettors with a solid economic development strategy, which Connecticut still doesn’t have and desperately needs. Make no mistake this will be a vice tax and that every dollar spent betting on a game won’t be spent eating at a local restaurant or investing in a nicer car or home or local business.
The reality, however, is that soon New Jersey will have sports betting, and other Northeast states, New York and Massachusetts in particular, won’t be far behind. The other reality is that Connecticut is looking at frightening state budget deficits in coming years. The costs of paying health and retirement benefits of public employees are soaring.
Connecticut has to find money somewhere. Sports betting might be one quick — though partial and temporary — fix. It’s estimated that some $2 billion of betting could take place in Connecticut.
A bill that would legalize sports betting made it out of committee earlier this year in anticipation of the Supreme Court decision, but didn’t become law before the Legislature wrapped up its session. The bill called for a 15 percent tax on revenues — a pretty penny. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is asking the Legislature to come back into session, now that the Supreme Court has ruled, to enact a sports-betting measure.
Such a measure seems inevitable. But the state shouldn’t mistake the hoped-for infusion of gaming cash with a solid plan to improve the well-being of people in the state.
Legalizing sports betting could be complicated by the state’s deal giving two Native American tribes a monopoly over casino gambling in Connecticut. In exchange, the state gets a quarter of all slot machine revenues from the casinos the tribes run on their reservations in the southeast part of the state. The tribes think the state should turn sports betting over to them. This could be a battle unless the state shares sports-betting revenue with the tribes, as it did when Connecticut legalized Keno and gave the tribes a quarter of the revenue.
Then there’s the question of which sports would be included. A UConn sports official worried, in his testimony to the Legislature this past spring, whether young players might be “vulnerable to act or share information which can impact the outcome of a game or contest.” A law could exclude collegiate athletics from bets.
Sports betting, however, is already a big, widespread business. Even the NBA supports legalizing it. The league sees that as a way to better regulate it and prevent bad actors like the referee who bet on games he officiated.
Regulating sports betting would provide consumer protections, accountability and some money to treat those who fall into its snares.
But don’t think, Connecticut Legislature, that this is a way to real prosperity. Legalized sports betting might solve some short-term problems, but the state needs to develop its troubled economy for the long haul.
— The Hartford Courant