Art Mongillo, the Connecticut Lottery Corp.’s public affairs manager, confirmed with PlayUSA that the state’s iLottery is “hoping to launch in the next two weeks or so.”
Mongillo said the lottery’s vendor (the company building the online lottery platform) International Game Technology (IGT) is “working on completing final regulatory requirements.”
The imminent launch of online lottery sales brings to a close a longer-than-expected wait for the Connecticut iLottery.
Key takeaways
-
- The Connecticut Lottery Corp. expects to launch its iLottery “in the next two weeks or so”.
-
- The launch will make Connecticut the 32nd state to offer some form of online lottery sales.
-
- IGT, the state’s lottery technology provider, has taken longer than expected to launch the state’s iLottery.
A timeline for Connecticut iLottery
The road to offering online lottery sales has been a long one for the Connecticut Lottery Corp. It’s a journey that reflects the national move toward in-person and online lottery sales.
Forty-five states and Washington D.C. have lotteries, according to the North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries. In each state and D.C., lottery customers can play the lottery by purchasing a ticket or instant-win game at a lottery retailer. Popular retailers include gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores.
Of those 45 states, 31 offer online lottery tickets. Those states fall into one of three groups:
-
- 12 states: Only online sales through the state-run lottery
-
- 16 states: Only online sales through courier services like Jackpocket that buy tickets for customers rather than selling them directly
-
- 3 states: Online sales through the state-run lottery and a courier service
Connecticut was ready to join the iLottery club in 2021 when lawmakers legalized online lottery sales. iLottery was part of sweeping legislation that legalized online casinos, online sports betting, online fantasy sports contests and online keno.
That year, the CLC hired IGT as its primary lottery technology provider via a long-term contract. Two years later in May 2023, IGT announced it signed an eight-year contract to deploy and run the state’s iLottery and online keno games.
At the time, Mongillo told Connecticut-based news outlet Inside Investigator the lottery anticipated that iLottery sales would launch in the weeks following the May 2023 IGT deal. However, it’s taken more than a year for that to happen.
Mongillo told Inside Investigator “All these steps take a lot of time, especially if we want to make sure that we meet regulatory requirements, and everything comes out accurately the first time, It’s a lot easier to say it than to execute,”
