Digital Wager Wire highlights the most significant events affecting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industries each week throughout the year.
Rhode Island Awards Bally’s Second Mobile Sports Betting License
The Ocean State launched its mobile sports betting industry in 2019, run by Sportsbook Rhode Island and operated by IGT. The onerous 51% tax rate remains among the highest in the nation.
However, the conventional wisdom at the time suggested that granting exclusivity to one company would be the enticement needed to convince that operator to pay the exorbitant rate, despite Rhode Island being one of the least populous states in the nation.
Yet the paradigm has shifted after witnessing the vast majority of states open their mobile sports betting markets to several operators, with competition and options spurring increased betting activity. This change in philosophy led the Rhode Island Lottery to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) with an application deadline of February 2026.
However, the 51% tax rate, coupled with the state’s sparse 1.1 million population, did not attract many bidders, with only Rhode Island-based Bally’s Corporation and Chicago’s Rush Street Interactive, parent company of BetRivers, competing for the license.
“There was a hope we’d get more companies to reply, but they didn’t,” Lottery Deputy Director Michael O’Rourke told NBC 10.
“I think that was part of the reason some of the companies did not respond,” O’Rourke added.
Ultimately, hometown Bally’s was chosen and is expected to launch in November of this year as Rhode Island’s second mobile sportsbook.
Bally’s spokeswoman, Patti Doyle, issued a statement stating, “Bally’s is thrilled to have been awarded a second sports betting license by the State of Rhode Island. We appreciate the confidence and trust the State has placed in our ability to provide a best-in-class product – built for scalability, innovation, and the evolving demands of modern bettors – which will generate additional revenue to benefit the Rhode Island taxpayers.”
End of an Era
Primm, Nevada, was once a small community that had little to offer travelers, but that all changed in 1977 when Whiskey Pete’s opened its hotel and casino. Primm became a convenient destination for Southern Californians who wanted a gambling destination that was closer and cheaper than Las Vegas.
The concept took off, and in 1990, Primm Valley Casino Resorts opened its own hotel and casino, followed by Buffalo Bill’s in 1994. The hotels competed amiably with each other, understanding they were a low-rent version of glitzy Las Vegas.
Yet they served a purpose, and all was well until 2000, when California voters passed Proposition 1-A, allowing tribal casinos to operate slot machines while lifting restrictions on card game limits in the Golden State.
According to David G. Schwartz, a gaming historian and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, this event signaled the beginning of the end for Primm’s casinos. However, the cannibalization of Primm’s foot traffic would not manifest until years later, when the casinos were built and began multiplying.
“Many of those people Primm was drawing from began to stay in Southern California, where the drives are just much shorter and the amenities much closer,” said Professor Schwartz. “You see the same issue playing out at Laughlin along the Arizona border and in Reno and Tahoe in Northern California.”
Whiskey Pete’s was the first official casualty, closing their doors in December 2024, followed by Buffalo Bill’s Resort & Casino approximately seven months later. Primm Valley Casino Resorts, the last one standing, recently announced it would terminate operations on July 4, 2026.
