Rhode Island legislative panel to study gambling

Michael Mello

Monday, May 13, 2002 | 10:39 a.m.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- House lawmakers last week unveiled plans for a nine-month study of expanded gambling in Rhode Island, where casino interests are eager to be first to offer full-scale gambling.

"We are open to all the information, the good, the bad, and if there is any ugly, it will probably show up," said Rep. Paul Sherlock, D-Warwick, who will co-chair a seven-member study commission.

The panel is made up entirely of Finance Committee members. It will hold its first meeting July 23. Meetings will be held at least twice a month through February.

The commission will travel throughout the state next March for public comment, before submitting its report to the General Assembly the following month.

Testimony will be taken under oath, at the suggestion of the attorney general. The panel will maintain a website so testimony, reports and minutes of meetings can be shared publicly.

Staff will be hired, including a consultant with gaming expertise.

Finance Committee Chairman Gordon Fox, D-Providence, could not say how much the study will cost taxpayers.

"We want to do it right," he said. Finance Committee staff will be used to defray costs.

The panel was formed after two Nevada-based casino companies said they were interested in Rhode Island. One of those companies, Boyd Gaming Corp., has a deal with the Narragansett Indians to build a casino in West Warwick.

Two years ago the House Finance panel voted down a request to put a question on the ballot asking voters if they would support the tribe's casino plans. Voters must approve development of any casino in Rhode Island.

The timetable of the study commission would preclude the tribe from getting the question on the ballot this year.

The Narragansetts haven't given up hope, however. They plan to make a pitch to the Senate Finance Committee later this month.

Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas said the tribe will soon unveil scaled-back casino plans. He hopes a smaller project than the tribe's previous Foxwoods-style plan will sway critics who want to preserve state revenues from video-lottery terminals at Lincoln Park and Newport Grand Jai Alai.

Both facilities have expansion plans that will be considered by the state Lottery Commission, independent of the House study panel.

"We want to make this work, we want to coexist," Thomas said. "We think the time is now."

Thomas is also worried neighboring states, such as Massachusetts, may approve casino gambling before Rhode Island.

If that happens, he said the tribe's opportunity "is going to slip away. Other states will advance and we will not."

Commission members said they can't worry about what other states might do.

"We don't want a rush to judgment," Fox said. "The stakes are high, we are trying to give this study some removed objectivity."

Rep. Paul Crowley, D-Newport, said there were predictions of doom for video-lottery revenues in the state after two Indian-run casinos opened in Connecticut.

Instead, "our (gaming) facilities in Rhode Island grew," he said.

Studying gambling regionally and nationally will be part of the panel's agenda.