David Brussat, Dr. Downtown: Rolling Snake Eyes in Newport

David Brussat, Dr. Downtown: Rolling Snake Eyes in Newport

You can’t blame Joe Paolino for unloading Newport Grand, with its cheesy “S-L-O-T-S” sign bolted up on the gargantuan gambling shack. The former Providence mayor and a couple of chums (not buddies) wanted to buy it and turn it into the Monte Carlo of Narragansett Bay, but Newport voters put the nix on adding table games to the video slots already there. 

Too bad. … Maybe.

One morning last June, when I was shown the proposed design, it looked like one of those fancy-pants casinos frequented by James Bond on the Cote d’Azure. Paolino and his partners were sitting at a table (in the editorial library of the Providence Journal) explaining the project. I beamed at the allure of its Beaux Arts classicism, but then pointed out that, in architecture, the devil is in the details.

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One of the partners, Peter de Savery, bristled at my suggestion that the final product might not live up to the nicely drawn architectural rendering. I was pleased to see de Savary wax wroth, for his anger seemed to bolster the credibility of its claim to quality.

Now we’ll probably never know.

Twin River and Newport Grand

Even after the voters’ thumbs-down, Paolino bought Newport Grand himself. He then turned around and sold it last week to Twin River, which has table games. Its managers promised not to install table games in Newport, at least not for now, and not without a thumbs-up from voters.

Twin River plans to build an architecturally undistinguished hotel at its architecturally undistinguished casino in Lincoln. With its vote last year, the City by the Sea has assured itself that Newport Grand will remain architecturally undistinguished, even with its S-L-O-T-S sign removed as promised.

Who cares? Gambling goes on inside. So long as there’s enough parking, nobody cares about the outside. … Maybe. Yet perhaps this is less a development issue and more a game of Stratego.

Our state’s casino battle plan

Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut are deploying their gambling battalions atop various strategic heights on the map of New England. The goal is to intercept squadrons of gamblers as they head out-of-state to throw their money away. For years, the Ocean State’s strategy has been to intercept columns of Bay State gamblers armed with dollars driving to the two big gambling encampments in the Nutmeg State. Get them to throw their money away in Rhode Island instead. And Twin River has been winning that battle. Nutmeg State gambling revenue has been down for years and the Bay State has yet to marshal its gambling forces against Rhode Island. But that is about to change.

A new slots parlor will open soon in Plainville, Mass., a mere 12 miles from Twin River. Can a slots parlor in Plainville defeat a casino in Lincoln? Will Massachusetts gamblers marching on the Rhode Island casino bypass their own slots parlor? Nervous Rhode Island generals have assigned journalists to remind Massachusetts gamblers that they can still smoke at Twin River.

Rhode Island’s strategy may work for a while, but like the Germans watching Allied forces in England prepare to invade France in 1944, the Ocean State’s high command has a case of the jitters as it watches the buildup of forces along the northern border. Massachusetts is marshaling three more fortresses of gaming, all full-fledged casinos, to keep their gamblers at home. Nobody can be sure how long Rhode Island’s powerful gambling revenues can hold out.

Correlation of gambling forces

Paolino, after his defeat at the Battle of Newport Grand, has seconded his diminished battalions to Twin River. But losing generals rarely bend many ears, and it seems unlikely that Twin River will try to outflank Newport voters and bring a reinforced Newport Grand onto the field of battle.

Twin River must have a mission for Newport Grand. Nobody can suppose that it bought the slots parlor only to assign it to KP. But if Rhode Island has a plan it is keeping it secret, as it should. No sense in alerting the Bay State to the Ocean State’s strategy.

Paolino’s strategy should have been tried. A casino that outshines Twin River could have shifted the correlation of gambling forces against both Massachusetts and Connecticut. Outshining Twin River would not have been a very tall order for Newport. Rhode Island should have looked out for spies behind its own lines. The vote against table games at Newport Grand could have been a secret mission carried out by a Fifth Column controlled from Boston.

One can still hope that the architecturally undistinguished hotel planned for Twin River is a feint designed to fool the Bay State into complacency regarding plans for Newport Grand. It may be that Twin River’s trenches are too deeply dug into the mud of low expectations for its casino experience to fend off the Massachusetts gambling assault. If so, Rhode Island can expect to throw the same snake eyes that Paolino threw in Newport last November. Too bad.

Rhode Islanders expecting the cavalry ride to the rescue of its gambling revenues may be in for a rude awakening. Marshal Raimondo will need a keen eye for Stratego to turn the tide of this battle.