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Politics as Usual by Jim Baron “So what’s going on with Twin River?” one guy I was chatting with recently wanted to know. “It looks like they are having money problems, the state is definitely having money problems. Why don’t they just do that 24-hour thing and get it over with?”
It’s a good question. I’ll give you the same answer I gave him: “Damned if I know.”
Yes, it does seem inevitable that the legislature is going to approve 24-hour gambling at Twin River and its poorer relative, Newport Grand. Then again, talk to Hillary Clinton about that word inevitable. She might have a word or two to say about that concept, but I’m not sure they would be appropriate for a family newspaper.
That aside, it does seem as though extended hours at the state’s slot parlors are as close to a sure thing as you can get in gambling, but when, and in what form?
To answer the second part of that first, it looks like the “24/3” proposal — 24-hour operations on Fridays and Saturdays as well as Sundays-before-holidays — has become the clear favorite. The “24/7” we-never-close idea seemed excessive to a lot of folks, probably even the management of the two facilities as well. Sure, they’ll be happy to let people keep pumping their money into machines until the sun comes over the horizon on Saturday, but how long would they want to keep the place open and staffed, even with a skeleton crew, at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesdays so two or three people who don’t have the brains to go home can keep playing penny slots?
Even Lincoln officials see the 24/3 as a compromise they are willing to begrudgingly swallow, even though they will continue to insist they are against expanded hours, just like the voters said last November. The Lincoln pols have no choice in the matter; they know they have to pay lip service to their constituents’ vote in the non-binding referendum, but they also know what will happen if they stand on the railroad track holding out one hand with arm extended and saying, “Stop!”
But as for the question of when —well, that train seems to be rolling real slow.
It’s clear that the Division of Lotteries isn’t going to make a move until the legislature acts. Lottery Director Gerald Aubin could keep the doors open next weekend with a phone call, but right now the Carcieri administration seems content to let the legislature carry the ball for now.
So as that guy’s question implied, what the hell is taking the General Assembly so long?
Bowing to inevitability myself, I didn’t even bother to pose that question to anybody official — I knew what the answer would be: the legislature is doing its due diligence.
Yeah, yeah, all fine and well, but at some point due diligence becomes undue dalliance.
The state is bleeding red ink, not only for the coming budget year, but also for the one for which the clock is already ticking down to June 30.
What are we waiting for? There are some public-spirited Rhode Islanders, and quite a few friends from Massachusetts and Connecticut, who want to help defray Rhode Island’s budget deficit by sliding one shiny quarter at a time into slot machines right through the wee hours of the morning. Why are we standing in their way?
All I can tell you is that God and the General Assembly work in mysterious ways (although not always toward the same ends). Like the tides, the legislature moves at its own pace and rhythms and there isn’t much point in telling either one of them to hurry up.
What is baffling is that the lawmakers would be making it easy on themselves if they started to get a fresh stream of money flowing in, so there doesn’t seem to be anything to explain their procrastination except sheer orneriness and force of habit.
They never take action on anything — not anything important anyway — until about 1 a.m. on the last day of their session, usually sometime in June, and I’m starting to be convinced that might be what is going to happen with the gambling hours.
Governor Carcieri sent the legislature a supplemental budget intended to close a $150 million deficit in the current year’s budget. When he did, he said many of the things he suggested — such as furlough days that state workers need to know whether to adjust their family budgets for and municipal aid cuts that mayors and town administrators are still wondering whether they are going to have to account for — should be done sometime in March. Well, March is pretty much petering out and there is no sign from the legislature that action is imminent.
The additional revenue from longer gambling hours would no doubt help the state; it might not do that much to help Twin River in its current financial embarrassment. More money wouldn’t hurt, of course, but my understanding is their problem is with their debt. When BLB borrowed the money to buy the place, and for the renovations that went $1 million over the $125 million original estimate, I am told they agreed to a too-aggressive payback schedule and may have miscalculated how much additional revenue would come in after the renovations. So just like people all across the country with home mortgages they are facing huge payments they just can’t make.
There may, however, be a uniquely Rhode Island solution to Twin River’s difficulties.
We keep hearing over and over again about the so-called “loophole” in Rhode Island’s prostitution law. Well, let’s use it to our advantage.
What goes with the glitzy atmosphere of casinos, all-night entertainment and free-flowing cash better than hookers? Since it would all be indoors, it would be legal under the loophole.
You could design it so that, as is the case with the slot machines, the state would be responsible for “operating” the girls and, since this is the 21st century, the boys as well. Maybe the state could get 61 cents for every dollar of that action, too. If so, wave bye-bye to the deficit.
It would be perfect. Twin River already has that Al Green theme song: “Hold me, love me, please me, tease me, ‘till I can’t, ‘till I can’t take no more. Take me to the river.”
Let’s see Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun try to keep up with that! |
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