By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Four years after Rhode Islanders soundly rejected a proposal for a Narragansett Indian casino in West Warwick by a margin of 37-63, they may be asked to weigh in on whether Lincoln’s Twin River and Newport Grand should be established as full casinos.

Pawtucket Rep. William San Bento has introduced legislation to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would allow voters to authorize a casino in Lincoln or Newport, or both.
According the RI Constitution, even if voters statewide approved either or both of the casino plans, the measure would have to win a majority in Lincoln for Twin River to get a casino, and in Newport for one to go into Newport Grand.
As proposed in San Bento’s bill, the ballot question would ask voters to accept or reject this statement: “Approval of this amendment would authorize a casino in the City of Newport at Newport Grand and in the Town of Lincoln at Twin River to be privately owned and operated and regulated and taxed by the State of  Rhode Island.”
The amendment would call for the tax rate – currently 60 percent of all net terminal income – to be set by the General Assembly. The state is looking to Twin River to add about a quarter billion dollars to the state’s general fund this year.
For either venue, the step to becoming a full casino would be a small one.
Twin River, which already calls itself a casino in its advertising and promotions, boasts more than 4,700 video slot machines,
Newport claims more than 1,200.
Success in the constitutional amendment referendum would allow them to also offer table games such as craps and roulette as well as poker and other games of chance.
Whether there would be other amenities, such as hotels or entertainment is not specified in the amendment and San Bento said he isn’t concerned about those matters.
“I’m not trying to make it a destination” like the resorts at Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun in neighboring Connecticut,” he told The Times Wednesday. “I’m just trying to bring in revenue.
“I want to keep the business we are getting out of Massachusetts,” San Bento said, “I would like to bring back more Rhode Islanders who are going down to Foxwoods and Mohegan who like to play table games. If we had that, they would be at home, they wouldn’t go down there. Most of the people who gamble at Foxwoods and Mohegan are day-trippers; they don’t go down there overnight.
“I think this will be a win-win for the state and a win-win for Lincoln.”
State officials have long worried that one or more casinos could open in the Bay State, taking away Massachusetts bettors who now go to Twin River and Newport Grand.
“I understand Massachusetts is definitely going,” San Bento said. “I talked to someone who is very close to the leadership (in the Massachusetts Statehouse) and they are definitely going to go with casinos there.”
Asked if the town of Lincoln would have to get a bigger cut of the proceeds from the facility fto win the approval of voters and citizens who have been opposed if not downright hostile to the gambling parlor until now, San Bento said, “It’s not my say, but we can negotiate and I think negotiations will go on. I think the town will do very well. If they don’t vote for it, I think they are cutting their own throats.”
Whether there would be a hotel at the former horse and dog racing track “is not my call,” said San Bento, who chairs the legislature’s Joint Committee on State Lottery.”There could be, but I think the key is to get it done so that we have a full casino there that people can come to. If a hotel goes up, it goes up. But it’s not going to be like the skyscrapers they have at Foxwoods or Mohegan; I am quite sure it could be kept to a decent height and we’ll go from there.”
San Bento pointed out that both House Speaker William Murphy and Gov. Donald Carcieri have indicated they would not be averse to putting a casino question on the ballot for voters to decide.
“For years, the governor tried to impose his sense of morality on the state, and finally, last year, decided that in a democracy the people should decide,”  San Bento said in a written statement. “That is what my legislation calls for – a decision by the voters.”
Later this week, San Bento plans to introduce legislation codifying parts of Twin River’s bankruptcy settlement agreement with its lenders, including provisions to eliminate dog racing, plow state funds into marketing and promotion at the facility.