Poli-ticks

Senate President Dominick Ruggerio is making a sure bet

By Arlene Violet
Posted 5/23/18

Kudos to Senator Dominick Ruggerio for pledging to seek the opinion of the Rhode Island Supreme Court about whether internet wagering on athletics requires voters’ approval. Yet, he should go a …

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Poli-ticks

Senate President Dominick Ruggerio is making a sure bet

Posted

Kudos to Senator Dominick Ruggerio for pledging to seek the opinion of the Rhode Island Supreme Court about whether internet wagering on athletics requires voters’ approval. Yet, he should go a step further and ask whether the 2012 statewide referendum authorizes sport wagering on site at Twin River in Lincoln and in its soon-to-be casino in Tiverton or in any other locale. Here are the reasons why.

Article VI, Section 22 of the Rhode Island Constitution prohibits expansion of the types or locations of gambling unless it has been approved statewide and by the in the municipality where the proposed gambling would be allowed. Both state voters and Lincoln voters approved of the proposed gambling. Tiverton had no vote on the scope of the gambling in 2012 nor was this type of sports betting even in the equation when Tiverton voters embraced the location of a gaming facility in that town. In fact, the United States Supreme Court only issued its decision this month. It is a stretch to say that voters 6 years ago approved the gaming before it was even recognized as the prerogative of a state to allow sports wagering.

The RI Senate, in its bill, S-2045, avers that the voters approved of this kind of gambling because the voter information handbook referenced 25 US Code 2703(8) of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act(IGRA) whose regulations authorized sports wagering on tribal lands. This interpretation is even more of a stretch since the last time I looked neither the owners of Twin River or the legislature are Indians. IGRA was designed as a statutory scheme to allow reparations to Native Americans because of the land-grabbing activities which unjustly deprived them of their birthright. To argue that a statute designed to address the injustices perpetrated upon them somehow can be transmutated to allow non-natives to benefit under a statue not passed for them, is ludicrous. That would be like passing legislation to grant non-veteran legislators all the benefits of a veteran who served the country by a mere reference to Veterans Benefits statutes designed to aid real veterans. Further, it is the height of insult to have slammed the Narragansett Tribe’s quest to operate under IGRA by using the same statute to benefit non-Indians.

To assert that the voter information handbook reference to section 2703(8) of Title 25 of the United States Code somehow put every voter on notice as to the extent of the gaming be voted upon doesn’t quite pass the laugh test. Rare, indeed, would be that voter who understood the complexities of IGRA.

Similarly, the talk about having “outlier headquarters’ in other parts of the state for sports betting flies in the face of the Constitutional right of everyone in the state and at any proposed location site to vote as to whether they want such a facility in their neighborhood. Doesn’t Smithfield or Barrington residents have the right to vote on whether they want their town pockmarked by a gaming satellite facility?

The hired gun lawyers are all out with "opinions" paid by their gaming clients that everything is copacetic and that gambling expansion should grow like topsy regardless of any community input. The governor or legislature should ask for an advisory opinion from the top court immediately.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

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