The Twin River Sportsbook has 100 LCD television sets, so gamblers can enjoy the games on which they gamble.
Rhode Island legalized sports betting on Monday, as Twin River Casino in Lincoln began taking sports bets. To prepare for the grand opening of their sportsbook, Twin River placed 100 seats and as many as 100 LCD tvs in their gaming space to welcome visitors.
Dominick Ruggerio (D), President of the Rhode Island State Senate, said of the sportsbook opening, “Sports gaming provides the state with revenue that offsets reliance on taxes to support essential state services, such as education and fixing roads and bridges.”
Since Twin River Casino installed gaming tables in 2013, the operation has been in an escalating competition with Plainridge Park Casino in Plainview, Massachusetts. The two casinos are located 22 minutes from one another across the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border.
Lincoln Downs, which was renamed Twin River Casino in 2007, first offered video lottery terminals (VLTs) in 1992. Subsequent expansions of the gaming machine allotment along with the gaming tables posed a real threat to Plainridge Park, so its owners (Penn National Gaming) convinced the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to install a slots parlor at their racetrack.
Twin River Casino Sportsbook
To gain a new advantage in their competition, the Rhode Island legislature approved sports betting for Twin River Casino recently. It is the first legal sportsbook in New England, and its installation might draw gamblers from Boston to engage in legal sports gambling.
The Monday introduction was in time for a Monday Night Football game between the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans. While a Titans-Texans match-up is not tailor made for fans from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Twin River’s management said they had a nice crowd for the game.
Rhode Island 7th US State with Sports Betting
Rhode Island is now the seventh US state to introduce single-game sports bets. Before a May 14 decision by the US Supreme Court, Nevada was the only state allowed to have single-game sports betting. The SCOTUS decision allowed any state to approve sportsbooks.
Delaware changed its laws from legalized sports lotteries (parlay bets) to single-game sports betting. New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania followed suit. Each state has launched sports betting at various points of the NFL season, with Pennsylvania the last to launch on November 17 (at one venue so far).
Panthers Owner Predicts Sportsbook Growth
If David Tepper, the new owner of the Carolina Panthers, is to be believed, the number will grow in short order. At his introductory press conference at the Panthers’ new owner, Tepper said, “We have a law that was passed just recently and it has not yet hit the Carolinas, the whole gambling aspect. You think about the fans and you want to keep the fans in the building.”
Tepper said of legalized sports betting, “Eventually, it’s going to hit North and South Carolina. It has to, from a revenue standpoint. You have issues with paying teachers and other things down here, and tax revenue, so it’s inevitable.”
US Sports Betting Expansion
North Carolina and South Carolina are not the most gambling-friendly states. In fact, they are a part of a large block of southern states which restrict most forms of gambling. If the Carolinas are considering legalizing sports betting, then it is only a matter of time before it is legalized in large swaths of the country.
Eilers & Krejcik, a gaming analysis firm, estimates as many as 20 US states will legalize sports betting in the next 5 to 7 years. States considering such laws at present include New York, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Louisiana.
