Rhode Island’s Twin Management Group, which owns and operates the Twin River Casino and Newport Grand Casino, whose license will soon be transferred to a new casino in Tiverton, wants to be allowed to offer more “free play,” at its casinos.
The company has asked the legislature to allow it to give away $750,000 and as much as 20 percent of the money put into its VLTs from the previous year as free play. That is twice as much as it currently offers.
Last year the two casinos gave away $48 million in free play at Twin River and $5.3 million at the Newport Grand.
Twin Management argues that this will increase its competitive stance compared to rival casinos in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Free play is used to attract players in the hopes that they will continue to play once they have run through their promotional “cash.”
House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi, author of the House bill, commented, “My understanding is that free play brings in more business, and more business means the state gets more revenue.”
Although state law sets a ceiling on how much the casinos’ video lottery terminals can give away as free play, casinos can give away more, but the state doesn’t share the expense. The state retains about 61 percent of the revenue from the VLTs.
