Both of Rhode Island’s casinos, the Twin River in Lincoln and the Tiverton Casino Hotel could have sports betting by December, although Twin River will definitely be the first to offer betting in sports teams.
There had been some talk about Twin River offering sports book by Thanksgiving, but apparently that didn’t happen.
After the Supreme Court struck down the 1992 federal ban on sports betting, Rhode Island was one of the first states to move on it, hoping to have its operations in place to be the first in New England.
So far Massachusetts and other northeastern states are cooperating by still just talking about legalizing sports betting.
The hoped for October 1 roll out date came and went, and as of last week state officials were hoping for a sports book that could take advantage of the holiday NFL games. The budget for the state whose third largest revenue source is its casinos, included $23 million from the sports betting that officials were hoping to collect from the 51 percent taxes on sports book. So far, not a penny has been collected.
Tiverton Casino Hotel is in the process of installing walls to create a sports betting room, complete with screens displaying games and races and a window to place bets.
Lincoln’s casino is building two rooms: a sports lounge with 100 screens and another for bigger games. The existing horse race simulcast room on the grandstand of Twin River’s former racetrack is being converted for this use. The facility will serve beer and burgers while watching to see how their bets are turning out.
Mike Barlow, Twin River chief of operations, commented last week: “I see folks from Connecticut, from Massachusetts all coming. New Hampshire. Why not? We’re the only game in town.”
Betting will be confined to the casino and no wagers on mobile platforms will be allowed—at least in the beginning. That will be introduced next year, something that is seen as necessary to be competitive, since New Jersey and Nevada allow this. Delaware and Mississippi still limit their programs to on-premises betting.
The Rhode Island casinos will also not allow “prop bets” which are wagers or certain actions happening while a game is in progress. That is seen as a hindrance to attracting players from the underground, who often use their Smartphones in what is seen as a very active black market. Although difficult to measure, some experts estimate the black sports betting market to be more than $100 billion.
