The Rhode Island Senate last week followed the example of the House and voted to put a measure on the November ballot that would allow the Newport Grand slots casino to add table games.
The Senate used what its president Teresa Paiva Weed called “an abundance of caution” in voting for the bill because of some concerns that the bill might be considered an appropriation. The bill passed 32-2, with the Senate reconvening for a nine-minute session after a first vote failed to get the two-thirds majority required for an appropriation. The House had previously passed the bill with a third-thirds margin.
One of the two senators who opposed the bill, Louis DiPalma, said the state has come to depend too much on gaming, which is its third largest source of revenue. “Casinos are basically a money sink, and it adds very little to the domestic product of the state. I would prefer us to be focused on other areas. It’s going to take us in the wrong direction,” he said.
The city of Newport previously rejected allowing the casino to add table games. Under this new bill the city would get $1.5 million annually from the state’s share of slots revenue for six years. The issue has arisen again because former Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino is leading a consortium of investors who want to buy the slots parlor, but only if they can add table games. They would commit to spending $40 million to refurbish it.
The Rhode Island gaming industry looks a little stronger this week after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allowed a measure that would repeal the 2011 gaming expansion law to go on the November ballot. Anything that calls the three casino resorts and slot parlors authorized in that bill into question is good news for the Ocean State’s two slots parlors.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has already approved two casinos, but they are not built yet. The slots parlor now licensed for Plainville is less than 20 miles from Twin River slots parlor.
According to New England gaming expert Clyde Barrow, if casinos are stopped in the Bay State that will give a boost to Rhode Island. “The main thing that it does is really open the door for an expansion of gaming in places such as Rhode Island should they decide to go forward with a hotel or something alternative in Rhode Island,” Barrow told Rhode Island Public Radio.
