Short Summary: This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of Rhode Island, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the casinos in the state.
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Rhode Island is most notable for being not particularly notable, but being the smallest state of the fifty doesn’t mean they have to have the least in of gambling offerings.
Indeed, Rhode Island has fairly liberal gambling laws and a broad array of offerings, including land-based Commercial Casinos.
The minimum age to gamble in Rhode Island is 18 years old.
UPDATE: During the Summer of 2023, Governor Daniel McKee signed a bill that would allow for Rhode Island’s land-based casinos to offer online casinos. In other words, Bally’s and Twin River. While Bally’s has not officially launched their online casino yet, we expect them to do so at some point in 2024. Of course, you might not like being restricted to one casino, so we’d encourage you to check out our top picks above!
Update: Since the time this was written, online sports betting became legal in Rhode Island, however, there is only one regulated betting site, Sports Bet Rhode Island, which is a function of the Rhode Island state lottery.
As of the time of this writing, online casino-style gambling does not seem to be available in the state, same for poker and there does not appear to be a Legislative push to make it so. Rhode Island has one of the smallest populations in the country, so the online betting market would be extremely limited and would definitely be tied to one of the state’s few land-based Commercial Casinos, which are listed below.
We honestly don’t expect a serious push to legalize casino-style gaming in the state because the state’s population is barely higher than that of Delaware, which has only one online casino that is shared by the three land casinos.
Of course, many offshore casinos have been available to residents of Rhode Island for several years, if not decades, so if you’re looking for a place to play, please check out our top recommendations above!
In of online gambling, players can feel relatively safe gambling at whatever sites they wish to. While there are serious penalties for operators who would offer an online casino from within the state, overseas operators are out of the state’s legal reach. There are also potential penalties for players who engage in unlawful gambling, but none of them appear to apply to players simply playing online.
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Rhode Island is one of the more reasonable states when it comes to charitable gaming, at least, in of fees. In of enforcement, we find:
Police regulation of bingo and permitted games of chance – “The division of state police shall have the power and authority to license, regulate, supervise and exercise general control over the operation of bingo and permitted games of chance including, but not limited to, the conduct of permitted games of chance, the distribution of prizes, and the use and licensing of equipment specifically designed to be utilized to conduct bingo and permitted games of chance, as well as the licensing of persons, firms, corporations in the business of the sale and rental of equipment concerning bingo and permitted games of chance. The Rhode Island state police shall have the power and authority to investigate as to the direct or indirect ownership or control of any licenses and to revoke or suspend any license for just cause after a hearing.”
Enforcement of the charitable gaming statute provides citizens protection from fraud, and misrepresentation. The unit also assists citizens with the process of applying for authorization to hold charitable gaming activity and answers questions from the general public, the law enforcement community and local governments regarding same. The Charitable Gaming Unit is overseen by the Assistant Detective Commander.
Essentially, anything related to charitable gambling enforcement goes through the Rhode Island State Police. If a charity wishes to conduct a bingo event, then they must file an application for same with the state police; the application fee is a fairly cheap $5.00. Raffles work the same way, with the $5.00 application fee.
The one thing that the entities have to do is submit a financial report for each gambling event, and no other events for the entity will be authorized until the records from the previous event have been received. The full rules for bingo conduct can be found here.
Generally speaking, the fewer events and lower prizes an event has, the softer the regulations are. The only law that might be pretty tough for sizable events (not that there necessarily are any) is that a hard maximum of $7,500 may be awarded in prizes per bingo night. With the average size charitable bingo game, in basically any state, this would never become a problem.
In conjunction with the bingo event, pull tabs provided by the Rhode Island State Lottery may be sold, as well as raffle tickets, provided that the entity selling the raffle tickets already has a license to do so at that particular site and for that particular date.
The state does not take a tax out of the bingo events, but does require a financial report to be filed within seven (7) days of each individual event. The prize report mainly accomplishes two things:
The reason for the second item is because this is charitable gambling, so the state naturally wants to make sure that the bulk of the proceeds (positive revenues) are going to charitable or organizational causes.
Similarly, the state does not take a cut of the raffle proceeds, but does require the completion of a financial report for each raffle event.
Rhode Island is home to both live and simulcast racing events, which the state taxes accordingly:
- Four percent (4%) of the total money wagered thereon on win, place and show wagers;
- Four percent (4%) on multiple wagers therein involving two (2) animals; and
- Five and one half percent (5.5%) on exotic wagers therein involving three (3) or more animals.
Basically, a tax rate of 4% on standard or semi-standard bets (Win-Place, two horses) and 5.5% on exotic wagers. This tax rate is basically within reason, but is probably a little bit higher than some other states.
Also, make sure that you’re claiming your prizes if you’re one of the bettors/punters, otherwise the state just gets the money:
The amount of unclaimed money which shall hereafter be held by any licensee, on of outstanding and uncashed winning tickets, shall, at the expiration of one year after the close of the meeting during which the tickets were issued, be paid into the general fund of the state.
Personally, I think the track should get to keep that money since they’re the ones that have to hold and be prepared to pay it for the entire year, but there you go.
Rhode Island was also home to greyhound racing, at one time, but it has been made illegal in recent years.
That brings us to the lottery. The most recent Rhode Island Annual Lottery report can be found here.
So, let’s dig our heels in!
Rhode Island is at least extremely direct in how much gets returned to players in the form of prizes, Page 25 of the report (page 30 of the pdf) directly says that 61.42% of the lottery’s expenses were in the form of prizes returned to players.
The Rhode Island Lottery consists of draw games, instant games, video lottery terminals (at the two casinos) and a few other things. The 61.42%, however, refers only to the instant lottery and drawing types games. Rhode Island participates in the national mega jackpot lottery games Mega Millions and Powerball.
Rhode Island is an example of a state in which drawing games are actually more popular than instant games. In of total sales, drawing games came in with $160,361,098 for 2019 compared to $102,914,666 for instant games.
Combining the two results in $263,275,764 in total sales for these traditional forms of lottery, so we simply do this:
263275764 – (.6142 * 263275764) = $101,571,789.8
To discover that players lost about $101,571,790 for the year 2019 to these traditional lottery games. Based on an estimated population of 1,059,000; we come up with a loss of $95.913, per resident, to the Rhode Island State Lottery by way of traditional lottery games.
This amount is lower than many other states, but mostly owes to the fact that Rhode Island itself has two casinos and is surrounded by other states with casinos…which offer much better returning forms of gambling than does the lottery.
If we really dig deep, we get to Page 73 of the report (Page 80 of the pdf) which separates instant ticket sales and prizes from other sales. The first thing that we determine is instant ticket sales totaled $102,914,666 in sales against $71,047,693 in prizes, making the overall return for instant tickets about 69.04%, which is about average for those.
From that, we can subtract the instant ticket amounts from instant + drawing in order to determine what the total payout is on drawing type games. Naturally, it’s going to be just awful, so let’s find out:
Of course, any savvy gambler should know that State Lottery is (generally speaking) the worst possible bet that players can get. While the overall return of the drawing games in Rhode Island is a bit better than some states, it’s still the worst bet anyone can get.
We also get the total sales and prizes for individual drawing games in this report, on the same page, so I’ll just convert those to percentages:
In total, roughly 24.4% of the lottery’s total revenues come from instant tickets and drawing games. 11.8% comes from what they get on sportsbook, 48.5% comes from video lottery revenue taxes (casinos), 15.2% comes from table games and 0.1% comes from other sources not directly related to games as well as pull-tab sales for charitable events.
With that, we can at least conclude that 3/4ths of all gambling done in the state is on something better returning than the traditional lottery, so that’s something.
It’s really tough to blame the lottery for having such bad returns on the mega jackpot drawing games. That’s mainly because the jackpots are ridiculous and it’s simply a huge amount to fade. Players who play these types of games are arguably more interested in a huge windfall more than actually enjoying the activity of gambling, though we’re sure there is some crossover.
Unfortunately, we can’t get an idea of the instant ticket returns based on game types and denominations because that is not itemized anywhere in the lottery report.
In of online gambling, the only types of online play specifically legalized and regulated by the state are Daily Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting. The way that sports betting works is that it is run through an actual lottery website and players must physically in order to be able to play. As we can see, sports betting does for a not insubstantial portion of lottery revenues.
The state does not legalize or regulate online casinos as far as machines and table games are concerned, but there is nothing in the code that would appear to make it illegal for a player to participate in that capacity on an overseas website.
As I mentioned in the opening, poker players don’t have any legal options in Rhode Island. Most poker players travel to Connecticut to play in the large poker rooms at Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun.
Residents also can try finding local or underground games but these always present challenges. They can be difficult to find unless you already know other local poker players and they aren’t regulated so you have to make sure you aren’t being cheated.
You also need to worry about being robbed if you play for high stakes.
The only other option is finding an online poker room that will accept US poker players. The choices aren’t as good as in the past, but you can still find a few places to play poker online.
If you live in Rhode Island you can own any slot machine, as the state has no restrictions on age or type. This is just one of a few states in the United State where you’re allowed to own any slot machine. Most states don’t allow ownership of a machine that is less than 25 years old, and some states don’t allow any slot machine ownership.
Rhode Island is not home to any tribal casinos, however, the state does license/regulate (at this time) two locations for commercial land casinos.
Both of Rhode Island’s casinos are owned by Twin River Worldwide Holdings, including the Tiverton Casino. This casino is also sometimes called, “Twin River Tiverton,” or, “Tiverton Casino and Hotel.”
Some people might be confused as to the relationship between this casino and the Newport Grand. In addition to the casino simply known as, “Twin River Casino,” the Newport Grand was a competing casino located elsewhere in the state. In 2015, Twin River purchased the Newport Grand…but Twin River Tiverton is not actually the same casino. Newport Grand was located elsewhere and Twin River constructed this new facility (which opened in 2018) and was never called the Newport Grand.
This new establishment is home to a hotel consisting of 83 total guest rooms. Guests of the hotel will also enjoy the fitness center and complimentary wireless internet access.
The casino is one of the smaller ones in the area, coming in at only 33,600 square feet of gaming space. Were this casino located in nearby video keno games ranging in denomination from pennies to $25.
This property is home to 32 table games, which include: Pai Gow Poker. We recommend calling and getting the general operating hours if you’re looking for any game but Blackjack. Obviously, casinos of this size (and really, almost no casinos) offer the full complement of table games around the clock.
The property is home to a simulcast area for those of you who like to pick the ponies or the dogs. The sportsbook is presently open daily from 10:00a-8:00p, it is also at the sportsbook that you can to be able to do your sports betting online. Online sports betting is offered by the Rhode Island State Lottery in conjunction with William Hill and the Twin Rivers casinos in the state. The sportsbook also features a terminal to get winning tickets validated (if the book is closed) which can then be cashed at the regular cage.
The Center Bar is the main bar for the property and would normally feature live entertainment every weekend.
Eateries include the Casino Cafe and Grille, which features casual American food at a reasonable price. The property is also home to a food court consisting of Mooyah, which is basically a fast food burger place, Jacky’s Galaxy Restaurant—which serves Asian food—though you wouldn’t know it by the name, Pop’s Pizza and a Dunkin’ Donuts location.
There’s nothing wrong with being a locals casino and that’s precisely what this is.
The much bigger brother to Twin River Tiverton is the Twin River Casino, which consists of 190,000 square feet of gambling space and is located in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
This property originally opened as Lincoln Downs more than seventy years ago, in 1947, and would later become Lincoln Greyhound Park, in 1977. In 1993, the property would change its name to simply, “Lincoln Park,” mostly owing top the fact that it now had simulcasting wagering and slot machines, so they didn’t want people to get the impression that it was only a greyhound racing park, as had been the case for the previous decades.
Greyhound racing would not be made State of West Virginia, the racing operations lost all kinds of money anyway. In fact, the owners of the property (then known as BLB) had filed bankruptcy and stated that greyhound racing had to go in order for the property to survive.
Which is particularly ironic, because the original reason for the licensing of the casino games was so that the racetrack operations could survive! Basically the same thing as in West Virginia, but the dog breeder types have much better control of the WV politicians…otherwise, why would the state ever force the casinos to lose so much money on the pointless greyhound racing operations?
The hotel at the property features a combined 136 guest rooms and suites. Guests of the hotel will enjoy complimentary wireless internet, indoor pool and fitness center. Additionally, there is a lovely outdoor courtyard area just off of the pool.
The property boasts a combined 4,100+ video poker, video keno and slot machines ranging in denomination from pennies to $25. This property’s website actually does as well as I could describing their table game offerings, so we’ll just borrow from them:
Twin River Casino has 111 live table games, which include a gaming mix of Blackjack (51 tables), Roulette (8 tables), Baccarat (8 tables), Three Card Poker (5 tables), Craps (4 tables), Spanish 21 (5 tables), Let It Ride (3 tables), Pai Gow Poker (2 tables), as well as a Poker Room (23 tables).
Now, I added all of those up and came up with 109, but who’s counting?
The poker room offers Texas Hold ‘Em as well as Seven-Card Stud.
Though the property does not conduct live racing anymore, they still offer simulcast betting if that’s your cup of tea.
This property is home to a sportsbook open from Noon-8:00p.m. with the other policies and availability being essentially the same as Tiverton, as detailed above.
Eateries include the fine dining establishment, Fred & Steve’s Steakhouse, which features the best in area sourced steaks and seafood. Jerry Longo’s Meatballs and Martinis is going to be an Italian restaurant which is in the upscale casual range; it’s said to be coming soon and has not opened yet.
Wicked Good Bar & Grill as well as Sports Bar & Grill are essentially just sports bars that both serve your usual pub food. Wicked Good has a slightly more expansive menu with different sandwiches, wraps and salads. The Shipyard Pub does what it says on the box with mostly seafood inspired pub food, but also has some other choices, such as Asian dishes.
The 2nd Floor Food Court (they really broke the mold coming up with that name) consists of a Johnny Rockets fast food burger place, Dunkin’ Donuts and Sbarro pizza. The Market Square Food Court is home to all three of those, then also add a Subway and an ice cream place called Gifford’s Famous Ice Cream. The West Food Court is home to a Jacky’s Sushi Bar (does what it says on the sign) as well as a Jacky’s Express for Asian quick eats—The West Food Court is home to yet another Dunkin as well as a Nathan’s Hot Dogs.
In addition to those listed, the property is home to two other bars, of which, one is a cigar bar. The property is also home to an event center that occasionally features nationally known acts.
This casino falls short of being a resort casino, much less a destination resort, but it would definitely be a simple matter to enjoy a weekend here. That’s particularly true if you happen to be visiting Lincoln, Rhode Island, anyway. Aside from that, this is mostly a place for locals and regional players to come in and enjoy a day/weekend, and the property’s offerings are more than ample to make that happen.
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Rhode Island is not exactly the market where we expect any destination casinos to come to play, especially in light of increasing competition in the region and from nearby states. Quite frankly, the Twin River properties may well have a tough time of it in the coming years, though the sports betting seems to help a good bit.
Horse racing is still legal in Rhode Island, but as a practical matter, no tracks have operated horse racing on a full-time basis for some decades, so it’s not particularly likely. Greyhound racing is now illegal in the state, and even if it weren’t, nobody would want to do it anyway because it loses a ton of money. The only entities who care about greyhound racing are the breeders who are desperately trying to keep the dying, ‘Sport,’ alive.
In of overall offerings, with exception to legalized/regulated state online casinos (as far as tables and slots would go) you’ll not want for anything…unless you really enjoy horse racing. Besides that, simulcast is available at both of the state’s casinos if you really want to get money down on the ponies or dogs. Additionally, people acting as mere players can play at online casinos with impunity.
