Opinion: Connecticut looking to expand its gambling options

Connecticut was finally swept into the Northeast's whirlwind of gambling expansion with the introduction of keno to its lottery portfolio to produce revenue for the next budget. It's tapping a market that has proved very profitable for Massachusetts but will test the depth of bettors' pockets.

Keno is a simple numbers game. Gamblers choose one or more numbers from 1 to 80 and then wait patiently, usually in a bar or restaurant, as 20 randomly generated numbers appear one by one on a television monitor. A bettor's winnings depend on how many of the player's numbers match those on the screen. Players often choose numbers based on dates of spouses' and children's birthdays, anniversaries and divorces, or as with one of my friends, the birthdays of ex-girlfriends, which evidently is a measure of good luck.

In one respect, the Nutmeg State's gambling policy is limited by its compacts with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, which preclude additional, non-Indian Las Vegas-style gambling unless the state is prepared to forgo its 25 percent share of the two casinos' slot revenue. On the other hand, Massachusetts is probably an instructive example. Massachusetts introduced keno in 1993 and it is now second only to instant games in providing revenue to the Mass Lottery — $768 million in 2011 sales or about 17 percent of the Bay State's $4.4 billion in the 2011 fiscal year lottery sales.

Connecticut's lottery reported sales of $1.082 billion in the 2012 fiscal year, which returned a record $310 million to the state. State officials project raising $28 million from Keno in its second year.