Forced to close March 14, the two Rhode Island casinos owned by Twin River Worldwide Holdings in Tiverton and Lincoln brought in a meager $16 million in taxes for the month, according to data released by the Rhode Island Lottery. This was a 67 percent decline over the March 2019 figures.
Table game tax revenues for both casinos were $662,000 compared to $1.5 million the month before.
Sportsbook revenue to the state was $1 million for March, compared to $2.3 million the previous month.
Gaming taxes are the state’s third largest source of government revenue. Normally it pays $400 million into the state’s coffers.
The city of Tiverton, which is near the state line with Massachusetts, could see a $2.2 million shortfall for the fiscal year because of the closure. The town had budgeted $3.1 million in anticipated being paid by Twin River, but so far it has collected $1.2 million.
The legislation that authorized the casino in Tiverton stipulated that the town was guaranteed $3 million a year from gaming revenue. If there is no revenue, however, there can be no payments.
The city has put a lot of that revenue into its operating budget, which means that, with the casino closure, it could be forced to make cuts in police and fire. The city manager has said that all discretionary and non-essential spending must cease at least until the end of the year.
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo said recently that she was consulting with Nevada’s governor about how he plans to reopen that state’s casinos. She said he is aiming at a May 9 lifting of restrictions that would begin gradually.
In a separate but related development, the Rhode Island Ethics Commission voted 7-1 to dismiss a complaint against Governor Raimondo that she had violated ethics rules when she negotiated a $1 billion non-bid, 20-year contract with International Game Technology (IGT) to continue to be the state’s lottery provider through 2043.
After the vote the commission issued this statement: “After consideration, the Commission concurred with the prosecutor’s recommendation and voted (7-1) to find that there does not exist probable cause to believe that the Respondent [Raimondo] committed a knowing and willful violation of the Code of Ethics, and to dismiss the complaint with prejudice.”
Raimondo issued this statement: “We are pleased that the Ethics Commission voted to dismiss this baseless complaint, following a thorough review.”
The complaint filed in July 2019 was made by the Rhode Island Republican Party, which commented, “In recent years, the Ethics Commission has interpreted the conflict of interest provisions of the Ethics Code in a way that benefits State House politicians.” The GOP centered on the fact that IGT’s negotiator and former IGT Chairman Donald Sweitzer , who was the former treasurer of the Democratic Governors Association, which Raimondo chaired at the time.
Raimondo’s attorneys successfully argued that Sweitzer’s title was honorary and that he had nothing to gain personally by the contract extension.
It also alleged that she violated the code by negotiating a contract without “an open and public competitive bid process.”
The legislature is currently not in session, due to the pandemic, and so the extension of the contract has not yet been voted on by lawmakers. The existing contract expires in 2023.
