House votes to keep dog racing, allow 24-hour gambling
5:55 PM Fri, Jun 26, 2009 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The House has voted to allow round-the-clock gambling at Twin River seven days a week, and force the bankrupt current owners to drop their plans to suspend greyhound racing on August 8, and run a full 200-day season instead. The final vote was 61-to 9 on the legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Ciccone, a field agent for the Rhode Island Laborers District Council. The measure must now return to the Senate for a final vote because of amendments made in the House. Governor Carcieri intends to veto the bill, said his spokeswoman, Amy Kempe. Attempts to wrap up the six-month-long General Assembly session sometime late Friday - or early Saturday morning - hung up for hours on the outcome of the bill that affects kennels full of dogs and their owners, most of whom live out of state. The Senate would not post the $7.76 billion state budget for 2010 for a vote until the bill had its vote. A slice of the revenues from Twin River are part of the state's revenue projections. Labor leaders lined up solidly in support of the bill. House leaders placed the controversial bill to force Twin River to keep greyhound racing at the Lincoln track and slot parlor far, far down on their calendar in an obvious move to buy themselves time to muster the votes that would be necessary to withstand an almost certain veto. Extra: How the House voted on the Twin River dog-racing/24-hour gambling bill Then in a surprise move shortly before 5 p.m., House Leaders opened the debate on the multi-pronged bill to: *Allow round-the-clock gambling at Twin River, seven days a week. *Require the owners to drop their plans to suspend racing on Aug. 8 after running the minimum 125 days of racing required now, and run a full season 200 days instead. *Preserve the $784,458 one-year extra shot of the video slot revenue that lawmakers promised the town of Lincoln, as compensation for the state's decision to allow overnight gambling, at that point, on weekends and holidays only. The bill sponsored early in the year by Ciccone made it hard for some to say yes and others to say no with millions of dollars in new gambling dollars at stake for the state along with the fate of the dogs the bankrupt owners of Twin River say they cannot afford to run. Opponents called it a "major mistake'' to interrupt the bankruptcy proceeding which hinges, in part, on relieving the owners of responsibility to run the money-losing dog-racing part of the operation. Supporters bemoaned the loss of 225 jobs and a potential $7.5 million in state revenue, including the sales and income taxes paid the state by the workers. Rep. Charlene Lima alleged that the banks that lent money to Twin River, which have offered write off $290 million of the loans, would somehow get a "sweetheart deal'' if they were allowed to drop dog-racing 
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