Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-561 (2025)

No commissioner or unit head or employee of the department shall directly or indirectly, individually or as a member of a partnership or as a shareholder of a corporation, have any interest whatsoever in dealing in any lottery, racing, fronton, or betting enterprise or casino gaming facility or in the ownership or leasing of any property or premises used by or for any lottery, racing, fronton, or betting enterprise or casino gaming facility. For purposes of this section, an interest does not include ownership of investment securities in a publicly held corporation that is traded on a national exchange or over-the-counter market, provided the investment securities held by such person and such person's spouse, parent and child, in the aggregate, do not exceed one-half of one per cent of the total number of shares issued by such corporation. No commissioner or unit head shall, directly or indirectly, (1) wager at any off-track betting facility, race track or fronton authorized under this chapter, (2) purchase lottery tickets issued under this chapter, (3) play any authorized game conducted at a casino gaming facility, (4) place a sports wager, as defined in section 12-850, or (5) participate in online casino gaming, as defined in section 12-850. The commissioner may adopt regulations in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 to prohibit any employee of the department from engaging, directly or indirectly, in any form of legalized gambling activity in which such employee is involved because of his or her employment with the department. For purposes of this section, “unit head” means a managerial employee with direct oversight of a legalized gambling activity.

(1971, P.A. 865, S. 5; 1972, P.A. 187, S. 2; P.A. 79-404, S. 12, 45; P.A. 80-27; P.A. 11-51, S. 182; 11-61, S. 117; P.A. 13-299, S. 60; P.A. 17-89, S. 7; P.A. 21-23, S. 36.)

History: 1972 act included references to frontons; P.A. 79-404 substituted “executive director or unit head” for “commissioner” and “division” for “commission”, included gaming policy board members in prohibition against having interest in enterprise regulated by division and added prohibition against wagering or purchasing lottery tickets; P.A. 80-27 included employees of board in prohibition against having interest in regulated enterprises and added provision for prohibition against participation in any other form of legalized gambling; P.A. 11-61 replaced “executive director” with “commissioner”, replaced “division or member or employee” with “department or member”, removed provision prohibiting employees from purchasing lottery tickets, replaced “with the advice and consent of” with “in consultation with”, replaced “division” with “department”, and added definition of “unit head”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 13-299 deleted references to members of the Gaming Policy Board and made a technical change, effective July 1, 2013; P.A. 17-89 added references to casino gaming facility, added provision re commissioner or unit head playing authorized game at casino gaming facility, and made technical changes, effective June 27, 2017; P.A. 21-23 added provision re ownership of investment securities, inserted Subdiv. designators, deleted “, directly or indirectly,” from provision re authorized games at casino gaming facility, added Subdivs. (4) and (5) re sports wager and participating in online casino gaming and made technical changes, effective July 1, 2021.

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