The $140 million Tiverton Casino Hotel in Tiverton, Rhode Island, will open September 1 the Twin River Management Group announced last week. That’s a month earlier than expected, said Twin River Chairman John Taylor, who attributed this to the “tremendous progress” made by construction crews during the winter.
“We’re grateful that the construction team on the job have really dug in and allowed for this accelerated opening date,” said Taylor.
The casino, which is located a stone’s throw from the Massachusetts border, will have 1,000 slot machines and 32 gaming tables as well as an 84-room hotel.
The company also owns and operates Twin River Casino in Lincoln.
Last month Taylor released a progress report that said, in part, “For the casino, we are enclosing spaces and painting, the ceiling grid is being installed and light fixtures and security cameras are also actively being installed,” he said. “The restaurant area is taking shape and the food court is just about ready for coolers and other serving fixtures. With respect to the hotel, the rooms are in the process of being dry-walled and within the coming month, we’ll be tiling bathrooms and painting. Last, the garage is scheduled to be completed within the next month or so.”
Twin River is in the process of closing its Newport Grand Slots casino and moving the license to Tiverton. State voters approved this move in November 2016 and the town’s voters also narrowly approved hosting the casino. The casino will pay 61 percent of slots revenue in taxes and 15.5 percent of table revenues.
Casino gaming is the state’s third largest source of revenue. It amounted to more than $350 million last year.
Last week the Tiverton Town Council by a vote of 4-3 approved of 24-hour gaming at the casino. The hours were requested by Twin River. This doesn’t change the hours for serving of alcohol, which will not be served between 1 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekends.
The close council vote may be attributed to some protest by residents who said they didn’t know the casino had planned to operate 24/7 when the community was asked to vote to be a host community.
