Rhode Island

Rhode Island authorized online casino gaming in 2023 (R.I. Gen. Laws chapter 42-61.2); the Rhode Island Lottery launched iGaming on 1 March 2024, powered by Bally's and tethered to Bally's two Rhode Island casinos (Twin River in Lincoln and Tiverton). It is a single-operator state monopoly and was the seventh US state to offer legal online casino. Online sports betting (Sportsbook Rhode Island) has run through the Lottery since September 2019. IGT supplies core technology, and the Department of Business Regulation provides additional oversight.

A state-run monopoly built on the lottery

Rhode Island runs a fully state-controlled online gambling market, operated on the State's behalf through the Rhode Island Lottery within the Department of Revenue. The 2023 iGaming Act (companion bills H 6348 / S 948, signed 23 June 2023) authorised internet casino gaming and folded it into the existing lottery statute at R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-61.2-3.4, which empowers the Division director to make rules for state-operated iGaming and set policy. There is no open licensing round: the law channels online casino play through the State's contracted operator, Bally's, which also holds the two physical casinos — Bally's Twin River Lincoln and Bally's Tiverton — that anchor the arrangement.

One operator, no competing skins

Uniquely among US iCasino states, Rhode Island has a single statewide operator rather than a competitive marketplace of skins. Bally's Corporation runs the online casino under contract to the Lottery, with the platform and much of the technology historically supplied by IGT. Players sign up for one branded Bally's product; there is no menu of rival apps as in New Jersey, Michigan or Pennsylvania, where many licensees each launch their own. Online sports betting has followed the same pattern since 2019, run through the Lottery on the IGT/Bally's platform. The model concentrates both commercial risk and regulatory oversight in a single state-operator relationship rather than spreading it across many licensees.

Player protection set by the State, not negotiated

Because the market is state-operated, player protections are fixed by the Lottery and written into the enabling statute rather than varied across many operators. Section 42-61.2-3.4 bars anyone under 21 from online iGaming and requires identity and account controls; play is restricted to patrons physically located within Rhode Island, enforced by geolocation, so the app will not function across state lines. The State maintains a voluntary self-exclusion programme spanning casino and online play, alongside responsible-gambling tools and problem-gambling support funded through gaming revenue. Registration relies on verified identity checks. The precise tool set sits in Lottery regulations rather than the headline statute.

A revenue-share formula, not a flat tax

Rhode Island does not levy a flat operator tax; instead the statute (§ 42-61.2-7) divides gross gaming revenue by a fixed-share formula. On online slots the State takes roughly 61% — among the highest effective rates in the country — with the platform vendor and game vendor splitting most of the remainder and small percentages going to the host towns of Lincoln and Tiverton. Online table games carry a far lower State share of about 15.5%, reflecting thinner margins, with the vendors taking the larger cut. Online sports betting is divided 51% to the State, with IGT around 32% and Bally's roughly 17%. The State's proceeds flow to the general fund.

New market, tight oversight, an opening crack

Oversight sits with the Rhode Island Lottery and the Department of Revenue, which contract, audit and set policy for the state-operated games; the earlier Department of Business Regulation role has largely shifted to the Lottery. Rhode Island was a relative latecomer to online casino, launching iGaming on 5 March 2024 as roughly the seventh US state to do so. A notable 2026 development is the award of a second online sports-betting licence — again to Bally's, after a thin two-bidder tender — set to end IGT's single-platform sports monopoly when its exclusivity expires around late November 2026. Legislators have also floated re-balancing the revenue split further toward operators.

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