This Is Not 1636. State and Pequots Expected to Continue Negotiations on Gaming Expansion Through Weekend.

The Lamont administration continues to negotiate with the Mashantucket Pequot tribe after the state’s ill-judged announcement of a gaming expansion deal with the Mohegan tribe. No deal can be concluded without the Pequots’ consent under the state’s compact with the tribal duopoly.

Under the incomplete deal, Lamont allows the Mohegans to expand into online gaming, including sports betting. The state’s often beleaguered lottery agency would have the right to operate sports betting parlors, adding a regressive tax to the state’s collection of them.

Under the state’s compact with both tribes, the state cannot conclude a deal with only one. The Pequots learned from 1636-1638 what it was like to have the state authority and the Mohegans join in an effort to annihilate them. History is not unlike to repeat itself nearly 400 years later as the state and both tribes move closer to concluding a deal that is terrible for Connecticut.

Any deal will require the approval of the General Assembly and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Online gaming companies are expected to make the case that the state should be more forward-looking in its expansion of gaming.