Lawmakers have approved legislation that will eliminate the Rhode Island casino smoking exemption which has allowed indoor smoking on gaming floors. The new measure amends the state’s Public Health and Workplace Safety Act to include casinos, requiring them to become smoke-free by July 1, 2027. The bill, sponsored by Representative V. Susan Sosnowski, allows casinos to construct enclosed, separately ventilated smoking rooms where no gaming will take place. The move comes after years of debate, with casino workers and health advocates pushing for equal workplace protections. The Rhode Island casino smoking legislation includes a phased timeline to give casino operators…

Less than a year after launching two retail sports books, Rhode Island mobile sports betting is ready to launch. Governor Gina Raimondo signed into law S 37, a bill adding mobile Rhode Island sports betting to the state’s lottery-run operation. Raimondo also spurred the start of Rhode Island’s sports book operations last year by including sports betting revenue in her budget. Rhode Island sports betting is legal at the state’s two casinos: Twin River Lincoln and Twin River Tiverton. Those casinos both opened their sports gambling operations in 2018 and plan to expand into permanent space this year. Twin River…

Legal Rhode Island sports betting by the end of this Thanksgiving week! Six months after the US Supreme Court ruled to allow the adoption of sports betting by any state, Rhode Island is among a vanguard of jurisdictions that have legalized it, eager for what could be a significant source of new tax revenue. With Massachusetts and other northeastern neighbors still debating the issue, Rhode Island lawmakers this summer approved sports betting at the state’s casinos, Twin River and Tiverton Casino Hotel. It’s a cautious first step. Rhode Island won’t allow remote betting from computers and phones. Next year, though,…

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed a $9.6 billion budget for fiscal 2019 on Friday that legalizes sports betting and gives the state 51 percent of the revenues from the wagers. The budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 counts on $23.5 million of new revenue from sports betting, though the activity is not expected to go live until Oct. 1. Even so, the move could give Rhode Island an early edge in New England’s sports betting market, as states across the country look to legalize the activity after last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning a 1992 law…

Providence Journal – The  owners of the private Twin River casino are seeking legislative permission to give up to $75,000 in “interest-free, unsecured credit” on state-sponsored gambling. The bill was introduced last Thursday by new House Finance Chairman Raymond Gallison, D-Bristol.  It has not yet been scheduled for a hearing, but came to light on the same day the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on a  second, tangential bill to protect unlucky gamblers from having a Rhode Island place a lien on their property  for an unpaid gambling debt. The preamble to the bill allowing Twin River to…

Online Poker Report – When the Department of Justice rewrote its interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act in 2011, a number of legislators rushed to their state capitols and started hammering out ways to pass online gambling bills. One state that looked into online gambling was Rhode Island, which set up an exploratory committee. Nothing ever came of that precursor to a precursor to a bill, but Rhode Island Lottery Director Gerald S. Aubin made some interesting comments about online gambling that appeared in the Providence Journal this week. Aubin’s comments are just shy of being against online gambling, but…