Residents of Rhode Island this week will begin to see advertising urging them to vote for a proposed million casino in Tiverton a few hundred feet from the Massachusetts state line.
The campaign is being financed by Twin River Management Group through “Citizens to Create Jobs and Protect Revenue, Inc.” The idea is to take Twin River’s existing casino in Newport and move it to Tiverton, which the developer believes it will be strategically placed to keep the Bay State from draining away its casino revenues with the $1 billion First Light casino that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe plans to open next year in Taunton.
Twin River owns both Rhode Island casinos, including Twin River Casino in Lincoln and the Newport Grand slots parlor.
The campaign has already spent $180,181 in the first month. The campaign will officially kick off at a rally where Twin River board chairman John E. Taylor will be joined by VIPs from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council.
They are expected to talk up the hundreds of jobs that will be created if the casino is allowed on 45 acres near Route 81.
The measure, Question 1 on the ballot in November, must receive both a majority of voters in the state and in the town of Tiverton.
