The Connecticut Gaming Division has bucked the typical United States handle trend for July 2023, showing stagnant month-over-month player spend on sports betting at $91.5 million. On the contrary, the state did report an 18.9% increase in combined online and retail sports betting revenue. CN online casino spend was up month-over-month.

Connecticut retail handle drops yet revenue spikes

Connecticut sports betting is offered both in a retail capacity and online. In a retail capacity, sports betting is exclusively offered by the state’s lottery. The lottery is eligible to offer retail sports betting at a maximum of 15 retail locations. Per the American Gaming Association, nine were operational at the end of 2022.

Retail handle fell 18.1% month-over-month from $7.2 million in June to $5.9 million in July. On the other hand, revenue from retail sports betting jumped 125% from $0.4 million in June to $0.9 million in July. The staggering difference in revenue owes to the hold rising from just 5.6% in June to 15.3% in July.

CN online handle increase offsets retail drop

Online sports betting and Connecticut iGaming were both legalized at the same time. Following a law in May 2021 that granted the state governor the ability to renegotiate states tribal gaming compacts to include sports wagering, iGaming, DFS and digital lottery, the green light was given. Both online sports betting and casino went live in October 2021.

Online sports betting handle for July was $85.6 million, up 1.5% on June’s $84.3 million. Revenue grew 13.9% to $9.8 million from $8.6 million. Hold was more steady than retail, with 11.4% for July, up from 10.2% in June.

More casino wagers but less taxable revenue

CN iGaming showed interesting results, with a 16.4% increase in amount wagered from $979.6 million to $1.14 billion, yet a 10.5% decrease in revenue from $31.5 million to $28.2 million.

Connecticut is the country’s fourth largest iGaming state as per AGA’s 2022 reporting. The state-by-state breakdown of regulated iGaming GGR for 2022 was as follows: