The State’s Senate President Dominick Ruggerio has introduced a bill to legalize online and mobile sports betting in Rhode Island.
This, in the same week when the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Justice gave 90-days notice that it was going to use the decades-old Wire Act to end all online gambling across state lines.
The DOJ’s announcement came as a blow to online Casino and Poker operators, notably in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware. For some years now the three states have been running an interstate compact for online poker.
However, since its inception in mid-2018 online sports betting has only been allowed to take place within state boundary lines.
The Wire Act should, therefore, be no drawback in Rhode Island’s bid to join New Jersey in making mobile sports’ betting legal.
Ruggerio says his reason for introducing the bill is because mobile gambling is more widely convenient than it is from casinos and race-track betting shops. It should, therefore, generate more revenue via the state’s 51% tax on sports wagering.
Twin River Casino in Lincoln became New England’s first sports betting operator to accept over-the-counter bets on professional sports in November this year.
Ruggerio’s bill should now enable the casino to create a betting app that could be used throughout the length and breadth of Rhode Island to make online and on the move sporting wagers
Would -be punters, he added, would have to present themselves in person at either one of the Twin River’s Lincoln or Tiverton Casinos to open a betting account. This so Casino staff can verify the ages of all account applicants.
