01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 25, 2011
By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — As Massachusetts’ lawmakers move closer to allowing casino-gambling and at least one slot parlor within their own border, one anxious Rhode Island lawmaker is renewing his call for a special election to allow blackjack tables and other traditional casino fare currently banned in the Ocean State.
Before recessing last June, Rhode Island lawmakers set the stage for a November 2012 referendum on whether to allow full-scale casino gambling at the privately owned Twin River.
But on Wednesday, the day after Massachusetts legislative leaders unveiled a long-elusive compromise that could pave the way for three resort-style casinos and a slot parlor in their state, Rep. William San Bento, worried aloud about waiting that long.
Should Massachusetts award a license for a competing slot parlor at a track “20 to 25 miles” up the highway from Twin River, “and we start getting hurt badly, everybody will be kicking themselves, saying ‘Oh, how come we didn’t do it this year,’ ” said San Bento, the Pawtucket Democrat who chairs the legislature’s Lottery oversight committee.
The 190-acre former greyhound racetrack is home to about 4,750 electronic-gambling machines, placed there by the state Lottery under terms in which the state keeps about 61 cents out of every dollar left behind, a projected $275.5 million this year alone, according to the Lottery Commission. The struggling Newport Grand provides the state with another $28.7 million.
But neither the governor, nor legislative leaders seem to share San Bento’s sense of urgency, and the studies they have promised are in limbo.
For example, the legislation calling for the November 2012 referendum does not specify how much, if anything, the owners of Twin River would have to pay for the state’s first casino license. Under the proposal unveiled in Massachusetts, the state would take bids starting at $85 million.
The measure passed by Rhode Island lawmakers in June contained no such detail, saying instead: “It is in the best interest of the state to conduct an extensive analysis and evaluation of competitive casino gaming operations and, thereafter, for the General Assembly to enact comprehensive legislation during the 2012 legislative session to determine the terms and conditions [under which] casino gaming would be operated in the state if it is authorized.”
Asked if lawmakers had begun this analysis, a spokesman for House Speaker Gordon D. Fox said Fox “has focused his attention on preparing for the fall special session dealing with the very complex issue of pension reform. The casino analysis and evaluation will begin at the outset of the 2012 legislative session with the goal of enacting legislation by the end of the session.”
The wide-ranging impact study that Governor Chafee had said he wanted to see is also in limbo. Bids came in June 22 from the Berkeley Research Group in California; Christiansen Capital Advisors of Maine; Economic Consultants Oregon Ltd.; Gaming Market Advisors of Colorado; Global Gaming & Hospitality of New York; Marquette Advisors of Minnesota; and Spectrum Gaming Group of New Jersey.
His administration has been unwilling to make the bids public. On Wednesday, it also refused to disclose who is on the review committee that has met once so far. Explained Paul Dion, chief of revenue analysis for the state: “We do not normally disclose the names of evaluation team until after award and the letter of recommendation is written.”
Dion said the measure unveiled by Massachusetts’ leaders may help narrow the inquiry.
While the licensing and construction of resort-casinos could take years, Dion acknowledged that any one of the Bay State tracks “can put machines in, not literally overnight, but relatively quickly, assuming they have the wiring and the infra-structure.” But he anticipated there would still have to be a bidding process that “would take some time so … [it] is not going to happen overnight.”
In the interim, Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle said, the slot parlor revenues were up 9.6 percent in July, and management has brought in “a limited number of new, state-of-the-art games,” including 12 “participation games,” such as “Wheel of Fortune” and “Star Wars,” and 16 “progressive” games linking the Rhode Island slot parlors to jackpots in Delaware and West Virginia.
She said the games “will be closely monitored by TR management to decide if further expansion into these type of games is warranted.”
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