Twin River Management Group, in partnership with Camelot Lottery Solutions, has submitted to the offices of Rhode Island’s Governor, Speaker of the House and Senate President a competing proposal to operate the state’s lottery system.

The submission purports to provide 1,100 jobs backed by a $100m guarantee, save the state and its taxpayers approximately $500m in fees, invest $75m in development and improvements including a new 50,000 square foot corporate headquarters in the state, and would limit the control of the casino slot floor to the current state law of 50%.

According to Marc Crisafulli, Executive Vice President of Twin River Worldwide Holdings, and President of Twin River Rhode Island, the binding partnership was formed to jointly respond to any RFP in Rhode Island that combines lottery systems (Camelot) and VLTs (Twin River). 

In addition to creating new jobs, the proposal suggests a contract term of 12 years versus the 20 years proposed by IGT, thereby enabling the state to assess its market/technology needs and rebid the contract earlier. The total cost to the state would be less than $500m, said the two organisations, which is approximately half of what is proposed by the $1bn IGT no-bid deal.

“We believed all along that Rhode Island would secure a much better deal through a competitive bid process and today’s bid submittal demonstrates exactly that,” said Crisafulli. “As is evident, we have significantly improved upon the no-bid deal under consideration for IGT in many areas, notably in the shorter term, the lower fees to the state, meaningful investments in real estate development and a $100m guarantee to secure 1,100 new jobs, all while matching every other element of the proposed IGT deal.”

Crisafulli concluded: “We’re grateful the General Assembly will now take up this issue and can best decide for themselves, on behalf of their constituents, which is the better course for the state. Importantly, they can do so knowing that the 1,100 jobs thought to be in jeopardy if the IGT contract was not automatically renewed absolutely will be guaranteed.”

Wayne Pickup, CEO of Camelot Lottery Solutions said: “We’re excited about the possibility of teaming up with Twin River to compete for the state’s lottery business and strongly believe, if given the opportunity to do so, we will help the state secure a much better deal. We see a lot of opportunity to create more value for the state and its residents, and look forward to replicating the success we have delivered for our customers across the globe.”