24/7 slots coming to Twin River

Katherine Gregg

Nov. 5, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- PROVIDENCE -- With the state hungry for new revenue in a grim economy, Lottery Director Gerald Aubin has -- with Governor Carcieri's blessings -- approved 24-hour gambling seven days a week at the Twin River greyhound track and slot parlor.

Town voters registered their overwhelming objection to all-night gambling at the sprawling Lincoln gambling hall during a nonbinding 2007 referendum. State lawmakers nevertheless approved 24-hour gambling on weekends and holidays last year, and Aubin approved the next long-anticipated step, on his own, on Wednesday morning.

In a letter to Craig L. Eaton, senior vice president of Twin River's current management company, Aubin wrote: "As you are aware, the Rhode Island Lottery ... has responsibility to regulate the hours of operations at Twin River. Pursuant to that authority, the Lottery hereby permits and authorizes Twin River ... to maintain and operate all video lottery games which the facility is authorized to conduct on a twenty-four hour basis."

Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle said round-the-clock gambling could begin in 10 to 14 days, with some juggling initially of existing employees between shifts and then, potentially, some "additional gaming personnel and/or additional shifts."

Twin River is home to more than 4,750 video-slot machines, under terms where the state keeps roughly 61 cents out of every dollar that players leave behind.

During the year that ended on June 30, that translated into $242.3 million for the state, $110.3 for Twin River's owners, $27.7 for the machine providers, another $9.9 million for the Providence-based GTECH as the central-system operator, $5.7 million for the Town of Lincoln and $674,130 for the Narragansett Indian Tribe, which has no role in Twin River's operation or ownership.

The Lottery is a division of the state Department of Administration, headed by Gary Sasse who, in an interview on Wednesday acknowledged concern about the state's ever-increasing dependence on gambling revenue to finance state government. But he said the "die was cast" when the legislature allowed all-night gambling on weekends and holidays a year ago.

Insisting "this is not an expansion of gambling. It is an extension of hours," Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the way the governor sees it: "Gambling is here. It is the third-largest source of revenue for the State of Rhode island. The state needs to protect that source of revenue."

The move was not unexpected. Lawmakers approved legislation in June that would have allowed round-the-clock gambling at Twin River, and included in the state budget they cobbled together for this year an extra $3 million to $4 million attributable to the move to seven days a week.

Carcieri vetoed the legislation after the lawmakers attached a provision that would have forced the slot parlor's financially struggling owners -- who by then had already filed for protection from their creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court -- to drop their plans to discontinue live greyhound racing in August.

Citing no major quarrel with the move to overnight gambling, he said dog racing had become increasingly unprofitable, the $9-million annual operating subsidy Twin River's owners had been paying the greyhound owners had contributed to their "crippling debt," and that the legislature's intervention threatened to scuttle the consensual bankruptcy agreement Twin River's owners filed in court in late June.

The agreement hinged, in part, on the state's approval of round-the-clock gambling. It also spelled out a timeline for Twin River's owners to eventually surrender the Lincoln complex to their lenders. (State business regulation chief Michael Marques has confirmed his agency is vetting an application by John J. McLaughlin, a former top executive at Harveys Casino resorts who now heads Centaur Inc., to take on "key role" at Twin River.)

Sasse said the administration wanted to see what the legislature would do when it returned to wrap-up the session that ended abruptly in June. As it turned out, the lawmakers did not return until last week when they increased the Town of Lincoln's share of the video-slot revenue, but no further steps to increase the hours of operation at the slot parlor.

Aubin said he also held off for several months after Twin River's June bankruptcy filing to let the situation stabilize. At this point, "everything has been stabilized. Everyone feels comfortable with the situation at Twin River, and [we] realize there is a lot of revenue that can be generated as a result" of all-night gambling.

The current hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and round-the-clock on weekends and holidays, with liquor service cut off between "12:30 -- 12:45 a.m."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0161-39481310