Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- At the rate recession-wary Rhode Islanders are buying Lottery tickets and playing their favorite video slot machines, the state's gambling receipts will fall $11.1 million behind estimates for the year.

State Lottery officials delivered the grim news this morning at a State House meeting of the second and last of this year's official Revenue & Caseload Estimating Conferences.
At their last meeting in May, the revenue estimators -- who include the state budget director and top fiscal advisers to the House and Senate -- anticipated an overall $365.5 million from the sale of traditional Lottery tickets and video-slot play at Twin River and Newport Grand.

But Rhode Island is now seeing the downturn that is playing out nationwide in the gambling industry. The state's Daily Numbers game was down 2.69 percent during the first three months of the year that began on July 1, compared to the same three-month stretch a year ago; Keno sales were down 7.06 percent; Powerball sales, down 15.14 percent.

There were bright spots, including a 4.96-percent in instant ticket sales, but the video slots at Twin River and Newport Grand that have been the big-moneymakers also trailed last year's collections during a comparable period by 0.19 percent. While recent renovations moved players from one location to another at Newport Grand, they said the investments have not boosted business.

Were these trends to continue, Lottery director Gerald Aubin and CFO Dan Sarro said the Lottery's contribution to state coffers would be closer to $354.4 million, than the projected $365.5 million.

In most years, the Lottery has been a reliable and growing contributor to the state treasury. State gambling revenue from the Lottery has increased steadily from $249 million in 2003, to $281.1 million in 2004, to $307.6 million in 2005, to $323.9 million in 2006, to $320.9 million in 2007 to $354.3 million in the 2008 budget year, which ended on June 30. The exception in 2007 was due to major construction and renovations that disrupted business at the former Lincoln Park as its new owners created Twin River, which is now struggling financially.

The revenue estimators have several more days of meetings before they try to reach a consensus on this latest run of grim financial news means for the state's bottom line. The state started the year with $33.6 million deficit, attributed to over-spending the prior year. Overall, revenue fell another $25 million to $33 million short of expectations during the first quarter of this fiscal year. State officials have not yet said how they expect to pay the state's potential $10 million share of a settlement with Station Fire victims.

The governor's office suggested recently that the state might be $100 million or more in the hole only three months into the new budget year.

 Tags  deficit lottery Newport Grand revenue estimating Rhode Island Twin River

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