The number of states appealing for legal sports betting within their borders has been growing since the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May, and Rhode Island is one of them. The Ocean State is quickly making progress to have sports betting within the next year.
In January of 2018, legislation was introduced to the Rhode Island General Assembly that would amend the lottery agreement in the state, allowing for video terminals equipped with sports betting capabilities to be installed in Rhode Island’s two casinos.
Within the 4 page document, legislators laid out the gambling restrictions that would be applied to sports betting in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Lottery will be in charge of regulating and licensing venues to offer sports betting in the state. Residents would have to be 21 years or older to legally bet on sports in the Ocean State. No wagering on events that take place within the state will occur, nor will residents be allowed to wager on any collegiate Rhode Island teams, regardless of where the event takes place.
It also clearly states that any sports betting Rhode Island residents choose to participate in will have to take place in one of the two brick and mortar casinos located in the state. Twin Rivers in Lincoln is already up and running, and the Tiverton location is set to make its grand opening later this year. Mobile betting may be in the works in the future, but for now, RI officials are pretty much dead set on keeping sports betting to an in-person activity.
No action was taken after this bill was introduced in the legislature, as it needed to await the Supreme Court decision on PASPA to take effect. Now that PASPA is dead, however, it appears that Rhode Island is wasting no time in finding out exactly how it can begin implementing sports betting in the state.
The Providence Journal recently published information extracted from a series of emails between Rhode Island’s Lottery Director and several popular online gaming sites that have a vested interest in Rhode Island gambling, namely the international gaming giant IGT.
According to these emails, Rhode Island’s governor Gina Raimondo is so optimistic in upcoming opportunities that she has included a proposed 2019 budget that includes speculative revenue if sports betting were to be offered in the state.
These emails also revealed that many people, including Rhode Island Lottery Director Gerald Aubin and IGT senior vice president Scott Gunn, have agreed that Rhode Island sports betting was legalized in both 2012 and 2016 when voters approved gaming expansion in the state.
“In 2012 and 2016, Rhode Island voters approved Class III gaming, which we believe would include sports betting if in fact states are cleared to offer it,” wrote Aubin in an email response to Gunn’s inquiry on the topic. After the May decision by SCOTUS to kill PASPA, it looks like Rhode Island is in the clear to start implementing sports betting in the state.
Rhode Island’s lottery will be in charge of regulating sports betting and it is currently accepting offers from vendors to partner in the state in order to be the ones actually running the book through its casinos.
There are a number of vendors who have already hinted at tossing their hat in, including long-standing Rhode Island lottery fixture IGT. The state lottery will accept a total of 18 bids, and then further narrow down the candidates until they settle on a single partner.
Interestingly enough, also in the mix of potential sports betting vendors in Rhode Island is the popular DFS site, DraftKings. Their bid would be an interesting one to read, as Rhode Island’s proposed legislation was pretty clear on the issue of mobile and online betting – that there wouldn’t be any. If and when sports betting is legalized in Rhode Island, it would have to be conducted on Twin River property, at either the Lincoln or Tiverton locations.
Draft Kings contends that there are ways to navigate the currently proposed legislation. As it is written in the bill amendment, Rhode Island sports betting can only take place within a licensed, brick and mortar location. But DraftKings representative Sarah Koch states the legislation only talks about placing the bets at a physical casino in the state, not about where the casino lays the bet. Koch even went so far as to back up her claims with an official legal opinion.
“As long as it’s the casino offering the bets and accepting the bets at that location, in most case law the precedent shows that what matters is where the bet is accepted, not necessarily where the bet is placed.”
It’s an interesting tactic, to be sure. DraftKings has been operating relatively successfully for a few years, and Koch says that “we’re extremely well positioned with our customer base to rapidly expand into sports betting and offer sports betting on our online platform.” Only time will tell if Rhode Island lawmakers will see it the same way that she does.
Bids for the singular contract are due to the Lottery by August 1st. Both casinos are already equipped with space to open a sportsbook at their physical locations, so expect everything to begin moving very quickly once a bid is accepted and a contract is set.