[CT] Connecticut Bingo, Casino and Sports Betting [2023]

In the Constitution State, online gambling is not permitted via onshore providers, however there are offshore gambling sites that accept players from Connecticut. These sites include online casinos, sports betting and online bingo. They are regulated and licensed.

Land based casino gambling is dominated by two operators – Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. The duopoly sees a massive turnover of approximately $12 billion each year.

Other gaming opportunities are available with Off Track Betting for Greyhound and Horse racing.

Charitable gaming is permitted and has seen a decline in participation rate throughout the years for Bingo, Pull Tabs and Raffles.

Sports Betting remains illegal with the hope that a regulated market will be available by 2022.

Online Gambling

• Offshore online casinos are available that accept players from Connecticut
• Online Advanced Deposit Wagering (ADW) is permitted on horse racing events
• The State lottery does not offer any online gambling
• Connecticut hosts the largest casino in terms of floor space and slot machines in the world – Foxwoods. Foxwoods also has the largest poker room outside of California.
• The only other significant casinos in Connecticut include Mohegan Sun. All players in the market are striving to pushing for online casino gambling.
• Sportech is the exclusive licensee for land based and online horse and greyhound race wagering.

---

Best 5 Connecticut Online Casinos

Connecticut players are able to enjoy playing real money online casinos, sports betting and online bingo sites that are based offshore.

If you are looking for the best Connecticut Online Casinos, then select from our recommended list.

Our selection of Connecticut online casinos takes into consideration several factors that all players should be aware of.

First and foremost, safety and security is highly important when playing at an online casino. The best online casinos that we recommend, all have the most advanced security applications to protect transactions from unwanted cyber attacks for deposits and withdrawals. They also are powered by trusty worthy and honest software game providers that are commonly audited by third parties to ensure fair and quality gaming.

Our selection also offers extremely competitive casino bonuses. You will not be able to find many (if any) other online casinos that will be able to beat our selection.

Lastly, the game selection of our recommended online casinos is diverse and will meet the gaming needs of the majority of players.

Live Casino and Dealers

New to the world of online casinos is the concept of Live Dealers. Online Casinos now offer HD advanced streaming of real Live Dealers to your playing device. This is a great advancement in interactive gaming because it allows you to have the best of both worlds. You get to be assured that the odds are fair and NOT reliant on RNG algorithms, plus you get to use the casino Welcome Bonuses and protect your health by not venturing into the public. Many are avoiding the hassle of putting on a mask, getting temperature checked, and being concerned if they have exposed themselves to the risk of catching coronavirus. The convenience of playing anywhere, anytime cannot be beaten.

Playing at online live casinos with live dealers also comes with extra features that you would not be able to find at a land based Vegas Casino.

Read more about Live Casinos and Dealers by clicking here.

---

Top 3 Connecticut Online Bingo Sites

There are many online bingo sites for Connecticut. However, we have list the best of them for you to choose from, using a combination of player experience, quality of software, features and customer support.

Connecticut bingo laws are stipulated under Charitable gaming state legislation. These laws provide for the licensing of non profit organizations to operate bingo games. At present, these laws do not address nor permit online bingo by onshore operators. Accordingly, online bingo sites that do accept Connecticut players are based offshore (which is the same as online casinos and sports betting sites).

The recommended online bingo sites all accept players from Connecticut. They offer advanced features that include instant messaging, fun bingo games and protocols that ensures bingo participants play together in a civil enjoyable manner. Due to the social aspect of bingo, there is a cultural aspect to bingo which cannot be found with casino or sports betting. As an example, A LOT of acronyms form part of instant chat messaging. If you are not familiar with online bingo lingo, do not be afraid, learning it is one of the most fun parts!

Land Based Casinos

Currently there is a duopoly held by Foxwoods and Mohegan Suns. The two casinos can be considered to be on par with the size and glamour of those found in Las Vegas. By no means would you consider the two casinos to be small.

In 2019 alone, the two casinos combined had a gambling turnover of of more that $12 billion. The larger of the two is Mohegan Suns with $7 billion and Foxwood with $5 billion.

Without doubt, Connecticut offers two of the best casinos in the world.

Mohegan Sun Casino

Mohegan Sun may lead in the gross turnover per year over Foxwoods, but it is perhaps slightly smaller. A bone of contention for many, but nevertheless Mohegan Sun is leading in the popularity stakes. To describe the casino and resort as grand would be an understatement. Split between two sections – Earth and Sky Casino, the two converge in the middle to become integrated humongous casino.

Slots – there are over 5,000 slot machines hosted by Mohegan Sun. If you can’t find your favorite slot machine here, then you will not be able to find it anywhere.

Table Games – there are over 300 tables with a wide range of table games to play. They include: Baccarat, midi-baccarat, mini-baccarat, blackjack, roulette, Caribbean stud poker, craps, four card poker, sic bo, let it ride, pai gow poker, pai gow tiles, Spanish 21, Texas Hold’em Bonus, Three card poker and wheel of fortune.

Poker – there are over 30 poker tables with regular tournaments to join in. Poker tournaments cater for the beginner through to the experts. Poker games include: No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em and Bounty.

Race book – even if you are not a fan of racing, you’ve got to come to this room. The Race Book room holds over 300 terminals for horse racing fans to watch their races from all angles, as if they were at the race course. This is arguably the largest and most advanced race book room / hall in the world.

Foxwoods Casino

Foxwood is the largest casino in CT, owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal. It is an architectural masterpiece, and is on par with the luxury and glamour that you find in Las Vegas.

Slots – 5,500 slot machines

Table Games

• Blackjack
• Craps
• Roulette
• Mini Baccarat
• Pai Gow Poker
• Pai Gow Tiles
• Let It Ride
• Caribbean Stud
• Cris Cross Poker
• Spanish 21
• Three Card Poker
• Ultimate Texas Holdem
• Crazy Four Poker
• Casino War

Poker – there are 114 poker tables available at Foxwoods, which exceeds that of Mohegan Sun by a country mile.

Even though Foxwoods is extraordinarily large, it is slightly less popular than the Mohegan Sun.

Sports Betting Sites

Online sports betting sites do exist and they are based offshore. They accept Connecticut bettors, with no precedence of any bettor being informed of a breach in law, let alone charged with a misdemeanor or felony.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Daily Fantasy Sports is growing fast in popularity. New to the gambling scene, it is considered a game of skill by many which requires bettors to create a fictitious team based on real players. The performance of the real sports players in real life determine how successful the fictitious team is. As a result, it truly is those with the most “skills” will win.

The two dominate daily fantasy sports providers is DraftKings and FanDuel. On this site, we do not actively promote daily fantasy sports as we understand that it is a game of “skill” which is being exploited by bettors who have the best risk modelling. That is, it isn’t nearly about how well you know your sport, the sport players etc, it is very much about who has the best statistical model and who has access to the most detailed sports player data.

As someone who may be a big fan of sport, and thinking that they would have a good chance of winning money in DFS, think again. You are pitted against statistical modelling experts who deliberately target games that mostly have new players to DFS. In fact, it has been alleged that those who are extremely good at DFS have been known to collaborate among themselves and not compete with each other. Thereby creating a sustainable winning formula shared by the experts.

We therefore want our readers to be aware that DFS is not what is appears to be. In fairness, DFS is legal in Connecticut and many DFS onshore operators accept Connecticut players.

---

Gambling Laws

Advanced Deposit Wagering (ADW) has been permitted since 2002

Since 2002, Connecticut has not passed any further State legislation to legalize online gaming, though it is one of the States that is considering legislation.

Minimum Legal Gambling Age

• 18 for lottery, pari-mutuel betting and charity bingo and pull-tabs
• 21 for casinos and slot machines
• 21 for online gambling

Gambling Taxes

Online is not permitted commercially with the exception of ADW

Regulation and Governance

Connecticut Division of Special Revenue.

Gambling Legislation

Connecticut General Statutes (sections 52-553)

Connecticut Gambling Market Developments

Background

At present, only the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes hold an exclusive monopoly over slots machines within the market.

February 2015

A Bill was introduced to the legislature that sought to authorize slot machines to be located at existing off-track betting facilities within five miles of Interstates 91 or 95. This was put to the Public Safety and Security Committee for Consideration.

The State Senate announced it would not consider legislation to authorize slots machines at off-track betting sites, due to the continuous improvement of the State’s economy.

March 2015

A bill entitled; An Act Concerning Gaming, which would authorize the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Sun tribes, to establish three land-based casinos, was passed by the Public Safety and Security Committee, by a majority vote of 15-8 and advanced to the Senate. Under the provisions of the bill, the two federally recognized tribes would jointly operate each casino.

June 2015

On 12 June 2015, Governor Malloy signed SB1090 into law, authorizing the states two federally recognized tribes, to establish a multi-step process, to open a land-based casino in a JV, the operation of which would need to be compliant with both tribe’s current state-compacts. SB1090 stipulates that the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes may issue formal requests to municipalities interested in hosting one casino (expected to be located near the Massachusetts border). Once agreement has been reached with a local community, the tribes would then return to the District Attorney, for approval.

September 2015

The Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes formalized their joint venture partnership at a meeting in the state Capitol on the 10 September. This formalized agreement was a requirement of the SB1090 act passed in June.

October 2015

The State Lottery began offering Keno across the state from 7 October 2015 in over 3000 existing lottery retailers and 600 new bars and restaurants. The Lottery reached an agreement with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, who hold exclusive rights over gambling in the state, in which they will each receive 12.5% of revenue generated from the game with retailers taking 5%.

March 2016

The Public Safety and Security Committee introduced a bill to allow a licensed lottery management service to purchase tickets online, on behalf of another person. SB358 would allow the Connecticut Lottery Corporation to award licenses to 3rd party vendors who would be permitted to sell tickets online. Following its first hearing the bill was referred to the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Security and was scheduled for a
public hearing on 8 March 2016.

The Public Safety and Security Committee abstained from progressing SB358 due to significant opposition that was brought during its hearing.

April 2016

The State Lottery launched Keno across 2,900 lottery retailers. Despite the game already being permitted in the state, the CT Lottery had never officially introduced the game. All current lottery retailers were offered the option to operate the game including bars, restaurants and other social establishments.

March 2017

Legislation was introduced to authorize the development of a casino by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribe’s joint venture company MMCT Venture. SB957 sets out detailed regulations relating to the licensing process and operation of the proposed casino. The bill was referred to the Committee on Public Safety and Security for consideration.

MGM Resorts requested the proposed casino development process to be opened to other potential operators. Currently only the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribe’s joint venture company MMCT Venture would be authorized to operate the proposed casino.

MGM won a competitive bidding process to develop a casino in neighboring Western Massachusetts which is scheduled to open in 2018.

A bill was introduced to the Assembly to authorize the State Lottery to offer multi-jurisdictional lottery games via an interactive platform. AB967 sets out a range of consumer protection measures including the establishment of a voluntary self-exclusion scheme. The bill was referred to the Committee on Public Safety and Security for consideration.

May 2017

The Senate passed SB957 to authorize the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes to jointly develop a casino in East Windsor. A number of interested parties had opposed the bill and petitioned for the opportunity to be available to other bidders. The bill progressed to the House of Representative for consideration.

June 2017

The House of Representatives voted in favor of SB957 by a majority of 103-46. The bill would authorize a third casino in the state to be developed in East Windsor by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes and was submitted to Governor Dannel Malloy for final approval.

Legislation to expand the number of off-track betting facilities in the state was approved by the Senate. If passed, HB6948 would grant OTB operator Sportech eight more licenses to offer off-track betting in new locations across the state pending local approval. The bill progressed to the Governor for final approval.

Governor Dannel Malloy signed SB957 into law, authorizing the development of a casino in East Windsor by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes. Legal challenges will be made in opposition to the plan as a number of parties expressed interest in developing the casino however the opportunity was not opened to outside bids.

July 2017

Governor Dannel Malloy gave his assent to HB6948 to expand the number of off-track betting facilities in the state and begin the process of regulating sports betting. The bill directs the Commissioner of Consumer Protection to promulgate a regulatory framework to govern sports betting if PASPA is repealed as well as providing for eight more off-track betting facilities to be developed.

The legislature and Governor approved amendments to the tribal gaming compacts of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes to allow for the development of the East Windsor casino. The casino will be the first to be developed on non-tribal land and, as such, required legislative approval in order to protect the tribe/state revenue sharing agreements.

November 2017

Governor Dannel Malloy gave his assent to the 2018-19 Budget (SB1502) which included language to authorize and regulate daily fantasy sports. The legislation removed DFS from the definition of gambling and entrusted the regulation of the industry to the Commissioner of Consumer Protection who was granted until 1 July 2018 to adopt a regulatory framework. The annual license fee was set at 10% of gross win and capped at $15k and the tax rate was set at 10.5% of gross win. The DFS proposals require the approval of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes before they can be enacted.

February 2018

Foxwoods Resort Casino agreed a partnership with Pariplay to provide an online casino platform at its land-based casino facility provided online gambling receives legislative approval.

March 2018

SB276 was introduced to limit off-track betting and advance deposit wagering to authorized off-track operators only. The bill was referred to the Committee on Public Safety and Security for consideration.

SB277 was introduced to authorize The Connecticut Lottery Corporation to offer select lottery draw games online. The bill was referred to the Committee on Public Safety and Security for consideration.

HB5305 was introduced to permit an open competitive bidding process for the development and operation of a new casino in the state. The bill proposed a one-time licensing fee of not less than $50m and a gross win tax rate of 25% for table games and 10% for gaming machines. If enacted, the legislation would provide for the launch of the bidding process before the end of 2018.

May 2018

The House of Representatives voted in favor of HB5305 to permit an open, competitive bidding process for the development and operation of a new casino in the state. The bill has been passed to the Senate for consideration

Governor Dannel Malloy is to meet with the state legislature to discuss the next steps after the SCOTUS decision, which over ruled PASPA allowing for states to legalize sports betting.

It is possible that the issue could be addressed during a special session during this summer. Malloy would be expected to negotiate a new Class III gaming compact that will include sports betting. The tribes have exclusivity on Class III gaming in the state.

August 2018

Governor Dannel Malloy instructed the legislature to confirm whether or not it intended to hold a special legislative session to regulate sports betting in the state by 9 August 2018.

October 2018

A United States District Court dismissed a claim brought by the state and the
Mashantucket Pequot tribe against the Department of Interior in their attempt to build a casino in East Windsor. The ruling states that neither party has legal standing to require the Department of Interior to accept amendments to the existing tribal state compact. In the event that the state and tribe appeal the decision, MGM will have the right to be heard.

The Mashantucket Pequot tribe appealed the District Court ruling against a proposed tribal casino joint venture with the Mohegan tribe citing ‘improper political influence’ on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

December 2018

State Senator Cathy Osten, and other members of the Legislative Delegation introduced a bill ahead of the 2019 legislative session. The bill would remove the requirement for federal approval of the proposed East Windsor casino.

January 2019

State Senator Osten introduced legislation to authorize land based and interactive sports betting, interactive gaming and interactive keno in the state. The bipartisan bill would authorize sports betting and interactive gaming at the Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino, and authorize the Connecticut Lottery Corporation to offer interactive keno.

Senators introduced a bill to authorize sports betting. The Bill did not contain a specific regulatory framework, but if passed, would require the state legislature to develop a commercial framework for sports betting. The Bill was passed by 16-8 and was passed on to the Joint Committee on Public Safety.

March 2019

House Representative Joe Verrengia introduced legislation to authorize land based and interactive sports betting. HB7331 would allow casinos, off track betting facilities and the state lottery to offer betting on professional and collegiate sports events including propbets and in-game bets. The bill proposed a tax rate of 9.89% of gross win and a fee of 0.25% of turnover to leagues as part of a partnership agreement

The Masantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribes received federal approval to jointly develop the Tribal Winds Casino in East Winsor. It is estimated construction could take up to two (2) years to complete meaning the property could open in H1 2021.

May 2019

With the 2019 legislative session due to finish on 05 June State Governor Lamont expressed the opinion that the Bill to legalize sports betting and online gambling, SB17, was now unlikely to pass in the current session. It is more likely to progress in the 2020 legislative session. Initial there had been discussion around the State Lottery being permitted to offer sports betting. However, there has been concern expressed among tribal leaders as their understanding had been that the existing compacts would provide them with exclusive rights.

August 2019

Senator Cathy Osten introduced a draft bill which sought to authorize the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot to operate retail and mobile sports betting as well as online casino gaming. The bill also proposed allowing the tribes to jointly develop a new casino resort facility in East Windsor. Proposals included in the legislation would set the tax on retail
sports betting at 8%, all online gambling at 10% and table gaming at the new Bridgeport casino at 10%. The state lottery would also be permitted to expand its existing product offering online.

January 2020

Senator Cathy Osten introduced legislation to authorize the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot to operate retail and mobile sports betting as well as online casino gaming. The bill is largely the same as was introduced in the previous legislative session and would also allow the tribes to jointly develop a new casino resort facility in East Windsor as well as allow the state lottery to launch online products. The tax proposals remain the same and the bill would set the tax on retail sports betting at 8%, all online gambling at 10% and table gaming at the new Bridgeport casino at 10%.

February 2020

Representative Joe Verrengia introduced legislation to permit retail and online sports betting at the state’s tribal casinos, off-track betting facilities and lottery retailers.

The bill proposed tax rates of 10% of gross win on retail betting and 14.75% on online betting.

March 2020

Governor Ned Lamont issued a statement in support of legalizing sports betting within the current legislative session. The Governor stated that he favored the proposal put forward by Representative Joe Verrengia in February, which would permit retail and online sports betting at the state’s tribal casinos, off-track betting facilities and lottery retailers, as it was simpler and more achievable in the short legislative session.

April 2020

The State Lottery Corporation awarded Scientific Games a five (5) year contract to supply instant games.

Neighboring States

• New York
• Massachusetts
• Rhode Island