In the waning days of the 2013 session, the Connecticut General Assembly, without hearing or debate, hurriedly approved a budget provision authorizing the Connecticut Lottery Corporation to operate keno lottery games in Connecticut.
Approximately 600 keno terminals are expected to open up across the state, according to the head of the legislature's Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee. The deal to allow keno – projected to raise some $27 million in the second year of the budget — was struck ostensibly as a palatable alternative to raising taxes or cutting programs. While the budget-writing legislators — all Democrats — apparently were too rushed to inform the public of what they were up to, these same legislators, with the approval of the governor, somehow found time to negotiate with the Indian gaming casinos, which agreed to tolerate keno gambling in exchange for a 12.5 percent slice of the revenues.
