The music turned off and a hush fell over the crowd of 35 people seated at botanical print-covered tables in the Tiverton Senior Citizen Center dining room as the clock hit 1 p.m. on a recent Thursday. It was time for bingo.
The average age in the room was about 75 years old, which more than qualified these seniors to play. By law in Rhode Island, all players here must be at least 55. Number callers must be at least 60. Gene Lavoie, the retired marine electrician in a red hat and plaid shirt who just called I-17 into the microphone, appeared to be compliant.
State law also restricts the total daily prizes to a maximum of $400. But it’s camaraderie, not money, that draws players to the senior center’s weekly bingo game — and the limited prize doesn’t dampen their intensity.
“They take it very seriously,” Janet Holmes, the center’s director, said.
Lawmakers on Smith Hill are now taking a serious look at expanding the options for bingo in Rhode Island, where state law permits only charitable organizations and senior citizen housing or centers to operate bingo.
A bill sponsored by Sen. John Burke, a West Warwick Democrat and chair of the Senate Labor and Gaming Committee, would make it legal to operate bingo games at the state’s two existing casinos in Lincoln and Tiverton.
That would allow Rhode Island casino giant Bally’s to compete with the high-stakes bingo games offered at Foxwoods in Connecticut, where jackpots range between $500 to $1,000. Special games offer much bigger prizes, like the July 4 “Firecracker Bingo” with a $440,000 jackpot.
The prospect of having more places to play bingo appeals to Jo-Ann Buteau of Fall River, Massachusetts, who has visited the Tiverton Senior Center to play the weekly game for the past three and a half years.
“Ooh! Yes,” Buteau said when asked if she would be interested in casino bingo closer to home. “And all my friends too.”
Buteau and her friends are just the kinds of consumers Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone had in mind when he signed on as a cosponsor of Burke’s bill.
“How many buses do we see fill up and go do bingo at Foxwoods?” the Providence Democrat who chairs the legislature’s Joint Committee on Lottery said in an interview. “Why are they going out of state? They should be in state.”
Nonsmoking revenue loss
The bingo push by Bally’s could offset any potential losses that might arise when the state’s ban on smoking at both the Lincoln and Tiverton casinos takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, Ciccone said.
“There was an expectation by the casinos of a loss of revenue to the state,” Ciccone said when introducing the bill before the Committee on Labor and Gaming on March 18. “Loss of revenue to the state means we have to find it elsewhere.”
Bally’s executives warned lawmakers during debate last year that the smoking ban could lead to the potential loss of $30 million to $60 million in yearly tax dollars for the state, based on revenue declines the company saw in Delaware and Shreveport, Louisiana.
The bill explicitly states bingo could be allowed in both Lincoln and Tiverton. But Bally’s spokesperson Patti Doyle said if lawmakers were to approve the bill, bingo would be more likely to happen inside the 29,000-square-foot event space at its Twin River Lincoln Casino.
Lincoln Town Administrator Phil Gould said he’s supportive of the proposal, noting it can potentially draw new visitors and more revenue for the town.
“I’m kind of excited at the prospect of bingo,” Gould said in an interview. “As long as our roadways can handle it, I’ll encourage this.”
The bill does not indicate how much of a payout bingo players would win at the casino. That determination would fall on the Rhode Island Lottery, which would have 180 days to come up with the regulations governing noncharitable bingo.
How many buses do we see fill up and go do bingo at Foxwoods? Why are they going out of state? They should be in state.
But the Lottery’s director has expressed several concerns, submitting a letter of opposition to the Senate Committee on Labor and Gaming ahead of the March 18 hearing.
Lottery Director Mark Furcolo warned that allowing bingo at Bally’s may curtail the state’s own game sold across all 1,081 licensed retailers. Players can view number drawings online. In Furcolo’s view, the bill as written would limit games to only the physical casinos.
“If such restrictions were enacted, it would constrain the Lottery’s ability to provide bingo offered currently to our players, negatively impacting revenue received from this lottery product and creating dissatisfaction with our customers,” Furcolo wrote.
Furcolo also warned the legislation may conflict with the state’s 20-year contract with Brightstar — formerly IGT — to be the exclusive provider of traditional lottery products. Brightstar posed a similar warning in its testimonial letter to lawmakers.
Because of those concerns, Ciccone asked the committee to hold the bill in order to make additional tweaks — much to his own disappointment.
“If it’s just some grammatical changes, then we’ll try to fix them,” he told the panel he chaired up until his promotion to majority leader last spring. “If it’s a substantive negotiation between two companies, then it appears this bill may not be going anywhere, and the state will be losing money.”
Burke acknowledged in a text message that the bill could be revised or held for further study.
Doubts about state revenue
The estimated revenue that high-stakes bingo could bring to Rhode Island is still to be determined.
A fiscal note has not been produced yet, nor has Bally’s calculated any projections. Patrick Kelly, a professor of accountancy at Providence College who studies gambling, doesn’t think the expansion would bring much to the state — or even the community that would have the bingo hall.
That’s because the legislation allows Bally’s to keep 84% of bingo revenue. The state would receive 15%, while Lincoln and Tiverton would share 1% — with the vast majority going to the Blackstone Valley community.
“That’s not a big revenue generator for the state,” Kelly told Rhode Island Current.
But Gould said the proposed host-community split is in line with what the town of Lincoln receives from table games and iGaming. The same applies to what the state generally receives from those gaming sources.
By expanding operations beyond charities and senior facilities, the legislation would lower age requirements for noncharitable bingo to 18 years, consistent with the minimum age to gamble in person in Rhode Island. But Kelly doesn’t foresee younger demographics rushing to play.
“It’s people who tend to be a little older, retirees who may do a day outing,” he said. “My college students are not going to play bingo in general, my concern with them is sports betting.”
If Bally’s Twin River Lincoln Casino had bingo, Buteau said she would like to go there to play the game with her sister, who lives in Woonsocket. Buteau said she had been to Bally’s Tiverton only once.
“I didn’t like it,” she said. “But if they had bingo, I would like it.”
Holmes, the director of the Tiverton Senior Center, thought casino bingo could pose a risk by exploiting a beloved pastime of older residents but that it mostly served a different crowd than the players she welcomes to the center.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Holmes said of the proposed bingo expansion sought by Bally’s. “I don’t feel that the casino would be a competition either. I think they could both exist simultaneously. I don’t think it would make a difference to us.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
Correction: Mark Furcolo’s name was previously mispelled and is corrected.
