The Rhode Island Lottery released its VLT and table game revenues for August 2024, revealing that VLTs collected over $43.7 million in revenues during the month. That marks an increase just shy of 3% month-on-month, although a drop of over 2% year-on-year. Meanwhile, table games collected more than $10.78 million in revenue, a drop from more than $11.1 million in July 2024 but a tiny jump from the $10.77 million in August 2023.

Bally’s Twin River Casino Responsible for Revenue Drops

Only two casino locations in Rhode Island support VLTs, with Bally’s Twin River Casino accounting for most traffic. Of the $369.5 million spent on VLT games in August 2024, Bally’s Twin River Casino accounted for almost 78% of that spend. 

The casino also posted the most revenues in August 2024, with more than $32.7 million, covering nearly 75% of the total VLT revenue in RI. Bally’s Twin River Casino saw revenues drop by 4.1% year over year.

That’s why, despite Bally’s Tiverton Casino growing its revenues by 4.4% compared to August 2023, the state’s VLT revenue still dropped year over year. 

Month-on-Month VLT Data Suggests Potential for Growth

While the year-on-year picture was negative for Rhode Island, the state saw positive growth month-on-month. Both casinos increased revenues compared to July 2024, with Bally’s Twin River Casino growing by nearly 3.5%, while Bally’s Tiverton Casino posted a jump of almost 1.5%.

In FY 2024, VLT revenue dropped from July 2023 to August 2023, only reaching the high of July again in March 2024. An increase month-on-month to begin FY 2025 may suggest Rhode Island is prepped for increases in revenues across the year rather than peaking early.

Slightest Jump in Table Game Revenue Year-on-Year

While only one of the two casinos in Rhode Island posted growth year-on-year across its land-based table games, it was enough for the whole state to see a marginal increase in revenues of nearly 0.1%. Rhode Island launched online casino gambling earlier in 2024, so seeing that the new gambling vertical hasn’t negatively impacted land-based gambling is a positive for the state.

Bally’s Tiverton Casino showed a 3.1% revenue decline year-on-year, although this only amounted to a drop of just over $35,000. Bally’s Twin River Casino grew its revenues by just under 1%, but as its revenue haul accounts for more than 80% of the state’s total, it ensured the Ocean State table game revenue jumped by almost 0.1%.

Rhode Island vs Delaware

When comparing Rhode Island’s performance to other US states with similar conditions, Delaware comes to mind with a population similar to Rhode Island’s of just over 1 million. Looking at igaming, Rhode Island generated just under $3 million in revenue in August compared to $3.7 million in Delaware, an achievement considering the igaming market in Delaware was the first US state to legalize igaming 2012, and RI launched its igaming market over a decade later in June 2023. 

Meanwhile, revenues of more than $10.7 million was collected by land-based table games in RI, also significantly more than the $3.5 million generated by the three casinos in DE.