The Rhode Island Senate is poised to vote on a pair of bills that would open the state’s sports betting industry to new vendors and impose harsher penalties on people who allow underaged online gambling.
And the odds look good for passage in the upper chamber, with longtime supporter of the state’s gambling industry, and new Senate Majority Leader, Frank Ciccone leading the charge. But across the rotunda, the fate of legislation remains unclear.
Since 2023, International Game Technology (IGT) PLC has had the exclusive right to run the state’s digital sportsbook. Lawmakers now want to end that monopoly by allowing the Rhode Island Lottery to consider additional vendors when IGT’s contract runs out in November 2026.
