Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee is expected to sign a contract with International Game Technology and Bally to operate the state’s lottery system for the next 20 years.
The Senate was the second chamber to approve the bipartisan deal with a vote of 28 to 7. Besides operating the Lottery, Bally’s which operates two casinos in the state, will get a 23 percent share of the state’s slot machine market.
In return, IGT and Bally say they are committed to providing 1,100 in-state jobs and paying $27 million upfront to the state.
Bally’s will be guaranteed its monopoly of the state’s casinos for another 13 years. But it also committed to spending at least $100 million to expand its larger casino, in Lincoln.
There have been critics of the bill, with Senator Jessica de la Cruz declaring,
“We are taking the first deal that comes along, and it is not a good deal for us,” while Senator Sam Bell said, “We as a state do not have to work so hard to squeeze every last dollar out of Rhode Islanders who suffer from gambling addiction.”
Senator Frank Ciconne responded, “I agree that we do have problem gamblers, but there is a concern on lost revenue,” but added, “People that want to gamble are within an hour of Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods Plainridge Park, Encore and MGM… If this bill doesn’t pass, we would be losing all that revenue to Massachusetts and Connecticut.”
The contract extension negotiations went for two years, when then Governor Gina Raimondo tried unsuccessfully to pass a no-bid deal with IGT that was furiously opposed by Twin River (now Bally’s.) Eventually the two joined forces.
Together they commented on the final vote: “We are grateful for the support of House and Senate members who have passed a $250-million economic development piece of legislation that best positions Rhode
Island’s gaming industry, the state’s third largest source of revenue, for the future.”
