Rhode Island’s Twin River Casino is installing self-serve sports betting kiosks at both of its casinos that it hopes will be online in time for the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament that begins this week and which involves several New England college teams. Whether it is will depend on whether the state’s Department of Revenue completes its testing of the equipment.
It has added 17 kiosks at its Lincoln casino and five in Tiverton. Currently Rhode Island has the sports betting market to itself in New England—and will also have a jump on anyone else with mobile sports betting. That shows in the bottom line. In February statistics showed that $32.8 million have been bet since sports book premiered on the day after Thanksgiving. That produced $1.2 million for the state. March Madness will be the first major tournament since sports betting was introduced in Rhode Island.
A survey by the American Gaming Association shows that Americans plans to bet $8.5 billion on the tournament, and that one in five adults will be placing such a bet.
The state Senate last week followed the House’s 64-8 vote with a 34-4 vote on HB 5241 that authorized sports betting on mobile platform, such as Smartphones, and sent the bill to Governor Gina Raimondo for her signature. The state lottery promises to unroll the technology within six months, just in time for the NFL season.
The new law would require persons to register in person at a brick and mortar casino. The activity will be taxed 51 percent, with the operating keeping 32 percent and the casino keeping 17 percent.
Some warn that this opens the way for minors to start betting and start an addiction early in life.
Rep. Teresa Tanzi declared, “We know cellphones are addictive and gambling is addictive. It’s two corrosive elements together, and we don’t know what those two things together will exponentially produce. I just don’t see that there’s adequate caution moving forward.”
Tanzi is urging the state to initiate a public awareness program on recognizing the signs of gambling addiction and to set aside public funds to treat the disorder. She wants the mobile app that the state will soon introduce to include information on where addicts can get help.
Rep. Anastasia Williams argues that a mobile app is a logical progression of the technology and that states that don’t employ that technology will see revenue drained to states that do.
Some members of the Republican minority in the Rhode Island legislature initially threatened a lawsuit to prevent sports betting from being adopted. The claim that it requires a vote of the people to expand gaming that much.
“I support this type of gaming. I don’t support moving ahead when there are substantial questions about its legality,” said Rep. Blake Filippi, the House minority leader. “I think we should be asking for an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Supreme Court before we build our budget around it and invest in the technology.”
Seven U.S. states have legalized sports betting since May, when the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on the practice. Another 14 are now considering bills that would legalize it.
