Are voters ready to bet on gaming?

ON NOV. 6, Rhode Island taxpayers will vote on two gambling referendums to determine the fate of table gaming at Twin River and Newport Grand.  / COURTESY TWIN RIVER
ON NOV. 6, Rhode Island taxpayers will vote on two gambling referendums to determine the fate of table gaming at Twin River and Newport Grand. / COURTESY TWIN RIVER

With Connecticut’s casinos struggling and competition from Massachusetts on the way, Rhode Island gambling opponents say the state should cash in its chips on gaming revenue.
State leaders and Rhode Island’s two slot parlors, however, want to raise the stakes. They’ve asked voters on Nov. 6 to approve ballot questions allowing Twin River Casino in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport to run full table games, like blackjack, craps and roulette, in addition to the video wagering offered at the sites right now.
The two gambling referendums – Question 1 for Twin River and Question 2 for Newport Grand – are the highest profile of seven questions on the statewide ballot, including borrowing authorizations to pay for a new veterans home, clean-water projects, environmental preservation, renovations to Rhode Island College and creation of more affordable housing. Together, the bond questions would raise $209 million for the state to spend.
As significant as the spending questions are, they’ve been overshadowed by the state’s gambling plan, which was spurred by Massachusetts’ entry into gaming last year when lawmakers there authorized three full casinos, including one in the southeast part of the state, plus one slot parlor.
A state-commissioned study by Christiansen Capital Advisors estimated that Rhode Island would lose $100 million in annual revenue once Massachusetts’ new gambling facilities are running.
Along with Twin River Casino, Newport Grand and state leaders, the Rhode Island business community has joined the push for table games in Lincoln and Newport.
“It certainly can’t hurt,” said Robert Nickerson, president of Stone Tower Properties commercial brokerage in Providence, about the impact of expanded gaming on the state economy.
One of five businesspeople on Twin River’s pro-Question 1 coalition advisory committee, Nickerson said if the state is going to have any gambling, it may as well do it right, and that means full table games.
“I am not a gambler, but I enjoy events up there and when you walk in the door, you think this is a casino,” Nickerson said.
Twin River’s Bring Jobs to Rhode Island Coalition includes the local leaders of three unions, four hospitality-tourism groups and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
Steve Cronin, president and CEO of Pawtucket marketing firm Twobolt, another coalition member, called table games at Twin River and Newport Grand “good for the Rhode Island economy.” “It will add jobs and increased tax revenue and I think if you are looking at the priorities for the state, those are pretty high up there,” Cronin said.
Under a state law negotiated with both Rhode Island gambling venues and passed by the General Assembly this year, the state will take 18 percent of all table-game revenue at Twin River, or 16 percent if revenue from video slots declines. The state’s share of video-slot revenue at Twin River will remain at 61.3 percent.
The state will take 18 percent of all table-game revenue at Newport Grand, but, if Question 2 passes, the government’s cut of video-slot revenue at Newport Grand will drop from 61.9 percent to 60.41 percent.
In both Newport and Lincoln, if video-slot revenue declines at their respective venues, the host communities will receive a 1 percent cut of table-game revenue.
General Assembly budget writers estimate that table games at Twin River will generate $60 million in net revenue during their first full year of operation, with $10.8 million going to the state.
Table games at Newport Grand would bring in $5 million in their first year of operation, according to the budget estimates, with $900,000 going to the state.
Twin River currently employs 900 people and the casino says that if table games are approved, it will add another 350 workers.
Newport Grand has 192 workers and CEO Diane Hurley said the former jai alai fronton would add 50 new employees if table games are approved.
The possibility that Newport Grand might one day expand beyond its operations and become a competing presence with Newport’s traditional tourism and hospitality businesses has raised concern about expanded gambling before.
But Hurley said she has no plans to expand.
“At this point in time we have quite a bit of open space and more than enough room for table games,” Hurley said. “We want to compliment what is in Newport and not compete.”
Asked whether, even with table games, Newport Grand can compete with casinos in Connecticut and Massachusetts, Hurley said it can.
Of course, gambling opponents don’t see it that way.
The Rev. Eugene McKenna, a priest in Middletown and president of Citizens Concerned About Casino Gambling, said increasing Rhode Island’s reliance on gambling revenue will hurt the state in the long run. “Statewide, gambling is not good economic development,” McKenna said. “The saturation point has probably already been reached with Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun laying people off and Massachusetts casinos coming.”
In addition to economic concerns, McKenna said expanded gambling holds a particular threat for Newport’s reputation and approving table games would give the state even more leeway to change or expand Newport Grand in the future.
Local voters do have a special say in whether Newport Grand and Twin River will be allowed to have table games.
In addition to the statewide ballot, questions 1 and 2 will need to be approved by a majority of voters in their respective communities to go into effect.
The last time voters weighed in on expanded gambling was 1994, when a bid to turn what was then Lincoln Greyhound Park into a full casino was rejected more than 2-to-1.
Casino backers, particularly Twin River, have pumped more than $4 million into a pro-gambling advertising campaign. Newport Grand’s effort has been focused largely in Newport.
A Brown University poll released Oct. 10 showed a majority support for both the Twin River and Newport Grand referendums.
After questions 1 and 2, the rest of the statewide ballot questions are all bond authorizations for state projects. They are:
• To borrow $50 million for renovations to academic buildings at Rhode Island College’s Providence campus. Improvements include space for the nursing program, but do not preclude the construction of a shared advanced nursing center with the University of Rhode Island at a future date, RIC officials say.
• $94 million to build a new state Veterans Home and assisted-living facility in Bristol to replace the current home, which was built in 1955 and has been deemed antiquated by state officials.
• $20 million for clean-water projects funded through the R.I. Clean Water Finance Agency and managed by the Department of Environmental Management.
• $20 million for environmental-preservation projects run by the Department of Environmental Management.
• $25 million for the development of affordable housing. •

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1 COMMENT

  1. Twin River’s pro-Question 1 coalition advisory committee has about as much common sense as Befuddled Carcieri had when it came to underwriting 38 Studios. These supposed business execs have little common sense.

    Anyone with any common sense understands that what is going on at Twin River is a bait-and-switch: vote for “table games,” and then that opens the door to a longstanding campaign, over the next 3-5 years, to develop Twin River into a massive Foxwoods-size destination resort casino.

    While Massachusetts is building its casinos, we’ll start to hear the usual spin from Twin River and its bought-and-paid for members of the General Assembly that we need to compete against Massachusetts. Soon, that competition will result in a massive Foxwoods-size casino in Lincoln, one that will forever alter the quality of life and landscape of the town.

    If you’re a Lincoln homeowner, a Lincoln small business owner, a Lincoln retired couple, or a parent/parents of school-age children in Lincoln, you should be prepared for what a YES vote opens the door to in Lincoln: a wholesale — and not-for-the-better — change in Lincoln’s quality of life.

    More traffic; more accidents; more drinking and driving; more crime; more addiction; more litter.

    Fewer local jobs and fewer local businesses. When people can get drinks and beverages at cut-rate prices or for free at Twin River, why would they spend their disposable income among Lincoln’s small businesses. That’ll mean local residents lose their jobs at local restaurants and local retail outlets. And that’ll mean local restaurants and retail outlets likely have to go out of business.

    You’ve seen what a Walmart can do to a community, haven’t you? Well, Twin River is a Walmart in a sense. It will redefine the way residents and businesses exist in Lincoln — if small businesses can even survive in Lincoln with a massive casino cannibalizing all local spending.

    You can’t be a small business selling food, beverage, clothes, etc., and compete again a Walmart in your town. How on earth do you think that small businesses in Lincoln will compete against a Twin River? They can’t. They won’t.

    If the referendum passes, I figure we have just about 12-18 months to sell our home at a profit before the prices start tumbling. Remember, there’ll be a SEMass casino and a SEMass slot parlor both competing against Twin River. Once it’s established where these two facilities will be in SEMass, Twin River will start its campaign to be a full size Foxwoods — bringing in 40,000-50,000 visitors a day.

    At that point, my best bet may be to sell my house to a Chinese speculator. They buy houses and pay a premium for houses near casinos. They then “rent” a room to 2-4 casino employees each, who have different work hours. So, a single, 8-room house could have more than 30-tenants, each paying $100 a week plus utilities, and the homeowner could make $3,000 a week — all cash — and not reportable.

    In fact, it got so bad in Norwich, Connecticut, the town next to Foxwoods, that the city has dedicated a city employee to simply drive around the entire town looking for the telltale signs of what they now call “hotbedding” — six cars in from of a single house; eight satellite receivers on one-house; four-five employees walking to the same house at the same time every day; eight-or-nine trash bins instead of 1-2.

    Vote “YES” on table games at Twin River — buy their BS — and you too can have a front-row seat of watching the quality of life in Lincoln self-destruct.