Rhode Island senators believe its time to allow more online sportsbooks to enter the state.
Senators approved Senate Bill 3118 by a 30-6 vote near the end of a long floor session on June 4, sending it over to the state House of Representatives.
Presenting the legislation on the floor on June 4, co-sponsor Sen. Frank Ciccone III described SB 3118 as “an open invitation” to sports wagering applicants, parroting the language used in the bill. Under the terms of the bill, the state would be allowed to issue a total of between four and six sports wagering vendor licenses, thereby significantly expanding the online sports wagering market in the least-populous U.S. state.
Which sportsbooks are available in Rhode Island?
Since it launched sports betting in 2019, Rhode Island has only had one approved operational online sports betting platform: Sportsbook Rhode Island, a platform powered by IGT under a multi-year deal that runs until 2028.
However, Providence legislators had already granted Bally’s Corporation a license to enter the market to compete with the IGT platform after IGT’s exclusivity expires in November. Rhode Island Lottery Deputy Director Michael O’Rourke told local media last month that Bally’s was chosen over a competing bid from BetRivers parent Rush Street Interactive.
Now, Rhode Island senators have given the green light to the idea of allowing between two and four additional licensees.
“No later than Jan. 1, 2027, the division shall issue an open invitation to applicants for sports-wagering vendor contracts and then shall award additional sports-wagering contracts until the total number of individual sports-wagering vendors operating in the state is no less than four and no more than six,” reads the text of SB 3118.
The Rhode Island Lottery will evaluate applications and award licenses based on several factors, including the quality of applicants’ product and technical capabilities, their sports betting operations in other states, their consumer protection standards, and whether they have a history of strong regulatory compliance. “Commitment to maximizing state revenue and minimizing harm” will also be a consideration.
That opens the door to some of the biggest U.S. sportsbooks to make their case, such as:
- FanDuel
- DraftKings
- Fanatics
- BetMGM
- bet365
- Caesars
SB 3118 changes Rhode Island’s sports betting tax system
The bill also lays out the state’s plan for taxing new operators once they are selected, with reduced rates potentially in the pipeline.
IGT currently pays a nationwide high of 51% of its sports betting revenue to the state for the privilege of being the sole operator. Under the terms of the new law, sportsbooks would pay that percentage until the state’s fiscal-year sports wagering tax revenue total equals that of the fiscal year 2025. Beyond that threshold, operators will pay 12% tax.
Meanwhile, each licensed operator’s cut of revenue would increase from 32% to 40.5% until the same threshold. After that mark, the operators would get 79.5% of sports betting revenues for the rest of the year.
The two land-based casinos in Rhode Island, which are both Bally’s properties, would have their revenue share cut from 17% to 8.5%, with a stipulation that each facility would receive a minimum of $4.5m in sports betting revenues per fiscal year.
Senate-approved bill died in House in 2025
This is not the first time that the Rhode Island Senate has approved an expansion to the sports betting market.
Last year, state senators passed a similar bill, albeit one that set the minimum number of licenses at three rather than SB 3118’s four.
During discussion of that previous bill, IGT Senior Vice President of Sports Betting Joe Bertolone told legislators that “the data strongly suggests that maintaining the current model is the most prudent course of action to safeguard and grow state revenues.”
“Shifting to a market with multiple operators may appear attractive in theory, but in practice, it often results in reduced per capita revenue to states, fragmented oversight, and significant administrative and compliance costs,” Bertolone wrote in testimony for this year’s bill. “Recent experience shows that these transitions rarely result in the promised revenues to the state.”
Last year’s bill ultimately failed to progress in the House. Rhode Island representatives in favor of expanding sports betting will now get to try again in the coming weeks. If the bill were to pass and be approved by the state governor, it would go into effect immediately, paving the way for a large expansion of sports betting in the state in 2027.
