As reported by several local news outlets, the two tribal casino operators in the state of Connecticut are at odds with Ned Lamont who serves as the state’s Governor. The biggest issue concerns who should be granted necessary licenses to operate sports betting services in the state.

According to one report released by The Connecticut Mirror news outlet, the two tribal casino operators in question here are the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe which are responsible for the Foxwoods Resort Casino venue and the Mohegan Sun venue respectively. The two tribal casino operators want to add sports betting activities within their facilities to stay in the game and compete with competitor facilities that offer such activities to their customers in the neighboring states of New York and Rhode Island.

The Senate Bill 21 Proposed by the State’s Senator Cathy Osten

The same news outlet also shared that the federally-recognized tribes are also supporting recently proposed legislation which is backed up by the state’s Senator Cathy Osten. This proposed legislation would give the two federally-recognized tribes exclusivity over sports betting services which are doubtlessly coming to the state soon. This measure in particular known as Senate Bill 21 would also give the tribes the sole license and right to operate iGaming activities in the state of Connecticut.

Senate Bill 21 would also grant the two tribal casino operators in the state the necessary rights to open a casino facility in Bridgeport as well as offer online sports betting and online casino activities via mobile devices and the Internet. Nonetheless, the state’s Governor Mr. Lamont appears to be favoring a series of other rival proposals known as House Bill 5189 and House Bill 5168 as reported by The Connecticut Mirror.

These legislative proposals which are favored by the state’s Governor would legalize sports betting activities across the state, but they will also allow the state’s Lottery Corporation as well as licensed, regulated off-track sports betting entity Sportech to join the two federally-recognized tribal entities as main operators of such activities in the state.

Governor Working on Finding Compromise

In order to find some kind of compromise which would work for every entity included, the state’s Governor Mr. Lamont decided to hold a private meeting with officials from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe several days ago. However, the two entities were unable to reach and kind of consensus according to The Connecticut Mirror.

The newspaper revealed that the tribes were claiming that the House Bill 5189 and House Bill 5168 proposals which are supported by the state’s Governor would doubtlessly violate their gaming compacts from 1994 as well as force them to initiate withholding their slot revenue-related payments which in 2019 reached around $255 million.

Commenting on the issue, Rodney Butler working as the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Chairman said that the state’s Governor’s vision of sports betting future in Connecticut contravenes with the tribal entity’s compacts since it would violate a ruling devised by the National Indian Gaming Commission which defines betting on sports in the state as a Class III sports betting activity. The Mohegan Tribe’s official Chuck Bunnell also explained that the compacts from 1994 give the two tribes sole rights to operate sports betting activities in the state as they fall into a category of Class III gaming under federal laws.

The online sports betting operator from Australia, PlayUP has just recently come under fire after it was discovered that the company has reportedly allowed some of its self-excluded customers to continue with their online gaming activities. According to one The Guardian report, this Australia-based online bookmaker accepted wagers from players who had self-excluded themselves as they felt they have a gambling issue.

Allowing online casinos and online sports betting customers to self-exclude themselves is required as mandatory by the code of conduct for online sports betting platforms in the Northern Territory where the Australian bookie is licensed. Moreover, allowing customers to self-exclude is also part of the nation’s legislation which governs the industry as introduced to parliament in November by the nation’s communications minister, Mr. Fletcher.

The New Self-Exclusion Laws

The self-exclusion policy also known as voluntary exclusion refers to a policy that is always enacted by casinos or regulatory bodies as a way of addressing the serious issue of gambling addictions. Online casinos and online sports betting websites which have enacted such policies cannot accept wagers from players who have previously self-excluded themselves.

In other words, once players ask to be self-excluded, operators are required to look into their applications and in the case of their applications being accepted, self-excluded customers are legally banned from participating in online casino gaming or online sports betting wagering as well as from other activities which are covered by operators’ self-exclusion policies.

When it comes to the Australia iGaming industry and its new self-exclusion laws, these make it a crime if an online casino or an online bookie fails to legally ban individuals who have previously self-excluded themselves. In other words, it is considered a crime if an online casino or an online bookie continues accepting wagers from self-excluded players and this is where the biggest concern regarding PlayUP’s self-exclusion policies emerges.

Suggested Sanctions

The Australian bookie in question here is owned and operated by the PlayUp Interactive Proprietary Limited company which is fully licensed by the Northern Territory regulator. The company was bought by Daniel Simic back in 2016 who after purchasing PlayUp went on a massive buying spree to purchase several rival brands as well as including TopBetta, Classicbet, Best Bet and Madbookie.

The same newspaper which shared the news also reported that the conduct code which was administered by the Northern Territory’s iGaming officials requites all licensed online casinos and online sportsbooks to provide self-exclusion facilities. Moreover, the most recent federal legislation which was introduced by Paul Fletcher made it a crime for iGaming operators to allow self-excluded customers to continue placing wagers.

Commenting on the news, PlayUp Interactive Proprietary Limited CEO Mr. Simic said that it would have been possible for customers who have self-excluded themselves to have wagered simply because all of his company’s recent acquisitions and related purchases had been run as independent businesses until recently. He also added that the company’s recent acquisitions were rolled together by different teams, while the businesses are now run by a single team. In his official press released, the businessman also proclaimed that his company had not done anything wrong from a technical point of view because its separate companies were not allowed to reveal data including self-excluded customer lists until after fully merged.

Lastly, he said that self-excluded customers could have somehow bypassed bans by providing information that did not match from one company’s site to another and in this case, his company would have no way of knowing when self-excluded customers place wagers.