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Rhode Island has one Greyhound track, Lincoln Greyhound Park, Lincoln.

 
The Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association continues to receive a portion of the money spent on video lottery terminals (VLT) - similar to slot machines - in theLincoln facility. They receive 6% of the machine's revenue which will likely bring their earnings from these machines over $10 million next year.

On November 26th, the Lottery Commission met to discuss a request to expand the number of video lottery terminals for the Lincoln Greyhound Track. With an increase in earnings from these machines, the Greyhounds will continue to race here. Lincoln Greyhound Park does not say on their website that they are a no kill track. Should neighboring states set up other gambling venues and take away some of the gambling business from Lincoln, the dogs will be the ones to suffer. With between 7,000 (as reported by the National Greyhound Association) and 20,000 (as estimated by some Greyhound advocates) Greyhounds being killed each year at the end of their short careers, it is unfair to these dogs to use them in this manner as a front for video terminal gambling.
 
But there are many who have an interest in increasing the number of video lottery terminals at this track: 46 percent of the money is earmarked for the State of Rhode Island; 31 percent is retained by Lincoln Park; 16 percent is divided among the VLT vendors; 6 percent is realized by the Rhode Island Greyhound Operators Association and one percent is remitted to the town of Lincoln, RI.

Roughly half of the greyhound kennel owners that are subsidized in Rhode Island are from out of state or out of the country, hailing from places like Oklahoma, North Dakota, Florida and England. Plus, a British firm owns Lincoln Park.

If you would like to voice your opinion on this subject, following is the contact information for the nine member Lottery Commission in Rhode Island:
 
Senator Maryellen Goodwin, Chairperson
Email: sen-goodwin@rilin.state.ri.us
 
Representative Robert Flaherty, Vice Chairman
Email: rep-flaherty@rilin.state.ri.us

Representative William San Bento, Jr.
Email: rep-sanbento@rilin.state.ri.us
 
Senator David E. Bates
Email: sen-bates@rilin.state.ri.us
 
Senator Michael J. Damiani
Email: sen-damiani@rilin.state.ri.us
 
Representative Joseph H. Scott
Email: rep-scott@rilin.state.ri.us
 
Robert A. Mancini
William A. White
Lynne Urbani-Craddock
 
This report of the meeting is from the Providence Journal....
 
11.27.2001 00:05
Fronton, track make play for more slots
The state's two gaming facilities say they can help the state balance its books, but only if they are permitted to expand.
 
BY KATHERINE GREGG
 
PROVIDENCE -- Without hundreds more video-slot machines, the state will not get anywhere near as much gambling money as it needs to keep from slipping farther into debt, the owners of Lincoln Greyhound Park and Newport Grand Jai Alai warned the Lottery Commission yesterday.
 
But opponents accused the two gambling establishments of using semantics -- and disingenuous arguments -- to try to win the permission they need from the Lottery Commission, to increase the number of video-gambling machines in the state by 75 percent -- to more than 4,300 -- without the voter approval the state's Constitution requires for any expansion of gambling.
 
"They are enlarging their building. I don't know how much more one can define 'expansion of gambling,' " state Rep. Bruce Long, R-Middletown, said of the new $30-million building proposed yesterday for Lincoln Park and the more modest addition eyed in Newport.
"In my humble opinion, this is an item that should be taken to the electorate," Long said.
"It is bordering on the obscene to take advantage of the economic situation, in part due to the September 11 tragedy, to introduce more opportunity to harm the American people," added the Rev. Eugene J. McKenna, president of Citizens Against Casino Gambling, at yesterday's Lottery Commission meeting.
 
A second hearing on the plans aired yesterday will be held Jan. 7 at a place to be determined.
 
Yesterday's hearing gave the state's only approved gambling establishments their first public opportunity to explain what they want to do and why. As Lincoln CEO Daniel Bucci put it: "We're playing to capacity."
 
The state's ever-growing share of the money wagered at the Lincoln dogtrack and Newport fronton has been one of the few bright spots in the state's financial picture in recent months, so much so that revenue estimators are betting once again on double-digit growth this year.
 
Earlier this month, the state's official revenue estimators upped their expectations from 4.2 percent growth in gambling revenues this year to slightly under the average in recent months: 20.3 percent.
 
Without that change in gambling estimates, the projected $70-million state deficit would be millions of dollars larger.
 
But one after another yesterday, the top officials at the dogtrack and the fronton told members of the legislator-dominated Lottery Commission: No way.
 
"It's just not realistic," said Lincoln Park's Bucci, to expect people waiting their turn at their favorite video-slot machines on a weekend to return at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. "We've exhausted our ability to keep pace with our patrons' needs," he said.
 
"I myself don't think that is realistic," fronton general manager Diane Hurley said of the new revenue estimate.
 
And the two had armloads more arguments for the new video-slot machines they want to add to their gambling menues.
 
The fronton wants permission to increase its inventory from 776 to 1,601 of the so-called "video-lottery-terminals" that are a step short of the coin-drop slot machines that a gambler would find at a full-fledged casino.
 
The dogtrack wants to increase its stable from 1,700 to 3,000 video-slot machines and build a brand-new, three-story, 100,000-square-foot building to house them on what Bucci described as "the footprint" of an unused clubhouse slated for demolition.
 
Alluding to the continuing efforts of Indian tribes here and in neighboring states to break into the gambling market, Bucci said an investment of this size by the British company that owns the dogtrack, Wembley Plc, "certainly will make other investors . . . think twice about jumping in."
 
It is "very important we protect our niche in the gaming community in New England," Bucci said, suggesting the state's share of the video-gambling revenues at Lincoln alone could more than double from $101 million or so last year to $209.2 million in 2005.
 
If the Lottery Commission moves quickly enough, the dogtrack and jai alai officials suggested they could make room for enough new machines -- 150 at the fronton, and 500 at the dogtrack -- to enable the state to make its new revenue target for the budget year that ends June 30.
 
But McKenna, the leader of the antigambling coalition, questioned the logic behind the math: "Much of the demand is created by constant advertising making the false promise that people will be winners. In reality, gambling by its very nature makes people losers."
 
"How much profit do the owners of Jai Alai and Lincoln need?" the Rev. McKenna asked.
Governor Almond sent a letter.
 
In it, he wrote: "Any increased revenues promised by the facilities must be weighed against the social costs to Rhode Island of ever-increasing gambling and reliance on the resultant revenue stream . . . The expansion will bring in more revenue to the gambling facility and the state that could be spent elsewhere to support our economy," he wrote.
 
Copyright © 2001 The Providence Journal Company
 
 
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