Gambling laws in Rhode Island
Rhode Island is famous for not attracting much attention. But being the smallest state of the fifty does not mean that their gambling offer is the scarcest.
On the contrary, gambling laws in Rhode Island are quite liberal, so there are a lot of gambling options here, including traditional commercial casinos.
The state of Rhode Island has a minimum gambling age of 18.
Online gambling
In terms of online gambling, players can gamble relatively easily on any site. The state provides for severe penalties for operators offering online casinos within the state, although foreign operators are outside its jurisdiction. There are also potential penalties for illegal gambling players, but these do not appear to apply to casual online gamblers.
Legalized online gambling
In terms of online gambling, the only types of online gaming specifically legalized and regulated by the state are daily fantasy sports and sports betting. Sports betting works through the lottery website and players must be registered on it. As can be seen from the report, sports betting makes up a small portion of the lottery’s revenue.
The state has not legalized and does not regulate online casinos in terms of slot machines and table games, but the laws say nothing about the illegality of playing on a foreign site as a simple player.
Poker
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are no legal options for poker fans in Rhode Island. Most poker players travel to Connecticut to play at the big poker rooms at Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun casinos.
Residents of the state may try to find local or underground games, but such options are always risky. Finding such games is not easy, for this you need to know other local poker players. In addition, such games are not regulated, so you must be careful not to be scammed.
There is also the risk of being robbed if you play for high stakes.
The only alternative is to find an online poker room that caters to American poker players. The choice is not as big as it used to be, but you can still find a few places to play poker online.
Ownership of slot machines
If you live in Rhode Island, you are allowed to own any slot machine; the state does not impose any restrictions on the age or type of cars. It is one of the few states in the US where it is legal to own any gaming device. Most states ban the ownership of a car less than 25 years old, and some states completely ban the ownership of arcade machines.
Traditional casinos in Rhode Island
There are no tribal casinos in Rhode Island, however the state has licensed and regulated two traditional commercial casinos so far.
Tiverton Casino
Both Rhode Island casinos are owned by Twin River Worldwide Holdings, including the Tiverton Casino. This casino is also called “Twin River Tiverton” or “Tiverton Casino and Hotel”.
There are often questions about the connection between this casino and the Newport Grand establishment. In addition to the casino known as the “Twin River Casino”, a rival Newport Grand Casino operated in another part of the state. In 2015, Twin River bought Newport Grand… However, Twin River Tiverton is not the same casino under a new name. The Newport Grand was in a different location; Twin River Holding built a brand new facility (it opened in 2018) that never operated under the Newport Grand name.
This new establishment has an 83-room hotel with a fitness center. Free wireless internet access is also available to guests.
The casino is considered one of the smallest in the region, it covers an area of only 33,600 square feet. If this institution were located, for example, in neighboring Pennsylvania, it would be the smallest casino in the state. The gaming zone hosts a total of 1,000 slot machines, video poker and video keno machines with bet values ranging from cents to $25.
This casino offers 32 table games including blackjack, roulette, baccarat, three card poker, craps, Spanish 21, Let it Ride and Pai Gow poker. We recommend that you call the establishment in advance to find out the opening hours of any games other than blackjack. Obviously, in a casino of this size (and in fact in most casinos in general), the entire range of games cannot be available around the clock.
The complex also has a broadcast zone for those who like to bet on horse racing or dog racing. The sports betting area is open daily from 10:00 to 20:00. You can also register here to be able to place sports bets online. They are offered by the Rhode Island State Lottery through bookmaker William Hill and local Twin Casinos. The sports betting area also has a terminal to confirm the winning ticket (if the shop itself is already closed), which can then be cashed out in the casino’s normal payout window.
Center Bar is the main bar of the complex and usually hosts live entertainment on weekends.
In terms of eateries, there is the Casino Cafe and Grille, which serves familiar American cuisine at reasonable prices. The complex also has a food court with establishments such as Mooyah (a fast food burger joint), Gacky’s Galaxy (an Asian restaurant, which is hard to guess from the name), Pop’s Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts.
This casino caters more to the locals and there is nothing wrong with that
Twin River Casino
Twin River Tiverton’s big brother is the Twin River Casino. Its gaming area covers an area of 190,000 square feet, and is a casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
This casino originally opened over seventy years ago, in 1947, under the name Lincoln Downs. In 1977, the establishment was renamed Lincoln Greyhound Park. And in 1993 the name was shortened to “Lincoln Park”. The fact is that the renovated establishment offered not only a dog racing track, as it was before, but also bets on broadcasts and slot machines.
Dog racing became illegal in Rhode Island in 2010, but it wasn’t until last year that Twin River Casino (as it’s now called) actually stopped running it. As with the two raceinos in West Virginia, dog racing would have lost revenue anyway. In fact, the owners of the establishment (at that time known as BLB) declared bankruptcy and said that in order to survive the business, they needed to run dog races.
This is especially ironic because originally casino-style games were also licensed to keep the tracks from going bankrupt! It’s essentially the same thing that happened in West Virginia, but dog racing fans have more control over politicians there… Otherwise, why would the state make casinos lose so much money on pointless dog racing?
The casino hotel has 136 rooms and suites. It offers free Wi-Fi, an indoor pool and a fitness centre. In addition, there is a lovely courtyard next to the pool.
The casino boasts of its gaming offering, hosting a total of 4,100+ slot machines, video poker and video keno machines with stakes ranging from cents to $25.