Table games on the November ballot

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Voters will get a chance to weigh in on the ballot question of whether or not to allow table games to hit Rhode Island casinos.

A court ruled on Thursday to allow the question on whether expanded gambling will come to Newport Grand and Twin River Casinos.

In November, voters will make a decision but it may not be clear cut.

“Our feeling is that it would leave a cloud hanging over the constitutionality of the question that’s going to be put to the voters,” said William Devereaux, lawyer for the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

Devereaux lobbied to the Supreme Court to speed up an appeals process to keep the question off the ballot, which the court ruled against.

“It’s left unanswered if it’s constitutional. So now you’re going to have a lot of people spending a lot of money on the cloud of uncertainty surrounding the question,” said Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

The question is a balance of revenue versus the rights of the Indian Tribe.

With competition moving in right over the border, Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas said that time is running out.

“The state’s going to protect the golden goose, in the haste to protect that golden goose they are going to cook it. Massachusetts and Connecticut are going to come, and we are going to watch the ship sail into the sunset,” said Chief Thomas.

A hearing is scheduled for the end of August to discuss the constitutionality of the proposal.