Rhode Island Online Gambling
Despite being the smallest US state by land area, the Rhode Island online gambling market is one of the most robust in the United States. It is one of the few states in the country with legal online casinos, sports betting sites, daily fantasy sports, and sweepstakes casino sites.
This Rhode Island online gambling guide will tell you everything you need to know about betting on sports and playing online casino games in Rhode Island. We’ll also tell you where you can gamble in person in Rhode Island.
Best Rhode Island Gambling Sites
Online casinos, online sports betting sites, and sweepstakes casinos are legal in Rhode Island. Here are our experts’ picks for the best Rhode Island gambling sites.
Is Online Gambling Legal in Rhode Island?
Online gambling in Rhode Island is legal. In fact, the Ocean State has one of the most impressive legal online gambling markets in the country.
Rhode Island was one of the first states to legalize online sports betting after the Supreme Court overruled the PASPA ban on sports betting in 2018. In 2024, Rhode Island became the seventh state in the US to legalize online casinos. Additionally, there are no Rhode Island online gambling laws outlawing daily fantasy sports or sweepstakes casinos, which means those kinds of gambling sites are also available in the Ocean State.
Bearing all this in mind, it’s clear that Rhode Island is one of the best states to be in if you are a fan of sports betting or playing games at online casinos. However, the actual picture is a little more complicated. The Rhode Island online gambling market is highly regulated, and regulators are very cautious about introducing any major changes without proper research.
For example, RI Governor Gina Raimondo signed Bill S2045 to legalize sports betting in Rhode Island in 2018. This bill allowed for two retail sportsbooks to open in the state. The Ocean State would take another year to open its online sports betting market. It took one more year after that for the state legislature to pass HB 8097 and remove the in-person sign-up requirement for online sports betting in Rhode Island.
The government has given Rhode Island online casino sites a similar slow rollout. Bills S948 and H6348 opened the door for one legal online casino site to operate in Rhode Island. Governor Dan McKee in June 2023. Plans for Bally’s Casino to operate a Rhode Island online casino site shortly followed. On March 1, 2024, the Bally’s Casino site went live as the only legal real-money casino in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island Gambling History
The history of Rhode Island gambling goes back to before the country’s smallest state was a British colony. Lotteries first appeared in the state in 1744, and one of the country’s first mega casinos, the Newport Casino, was built in the state in 1879. A lot of other things have happened in Rhode Island’s long gambling history. Here’s a Rhode Island gambling history timeline to get you up to speed:
- 1744 – The first Rhode Island lottery is established.
- 1842 – Lottery games are banned by the state constitution.
- August 1934 – Parimutuel betting and horse racing betting is legalized.
- November 1973 – Rhode Island amends its constitution to establish the Rhode Island Lottery.
- September 1992 – State approves video lottery terminals at racetracks.
- November 2012 – Rhode Island voters approve table games at land-based casinos.
- May 2018 – The US Supreme Court strikes down the national ban on sports betting (PASPA).
- November 2018 – Governor Gina Raimondo legalizes sports betting.
- March 2019 – Governor Gina Raimondo legalizes mobile sports betting.
- July 2020 – Governor Gina Raimondo removes in-person online sportsbook registration requirements.
- June 2023 – Governor Dan McKee legalizes Rhode Island online casino.
- March 2024 – Bally’s Casino goes live, becoming the first legal real money online casino in Rhode Island.
Legal Gambling Options in Rhode Island
Rhode Island has legalized all popular forms of gambling, including online casinos, sports betting, horse racing, and land-based casinos. See our table below for a brief overview of the current legal Rhode Island gambling market and when gambling was legalized in the Ocean State.
| Type of Gambling | Legal? | When Legalized? |
| Online Casinos | ✅ | 2024 |
| Land-Based Casinos | ✅ | 1992 |
| Online Poker | ✅ | 2024 |
| Land-Based Poker | ✅ | 2012 |
| Online Sports Betting | ✅ | 2019 |
| Retail Sports Betting | ✅ | 2018 |
| Daily Fantasy Sports | ✅ | n/a |
| Horse Racing | ✅ | 1934 |
| Lottery | ✅ | 1974 |
| Charitable Gambling | ✅ | 1979 |
Sports Betting
Rhode Island legalized sports betting on November 6, 2018, just six months after the US Supreme Court overruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which banned sports betting nationally. The first Rhode Island sports betting bill only legalized retail sportsbooks in the state. In 2019, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed SB 37 to fully legalize online sports betting in Rhode Island.
Sportsbook Rhode Island is the only legal sports betting site in the state. The Rhode Island Lottery owns Sportsbook Rhode Island. The sports betting site and the Sportsbook Rhode Island app have been very popular with Rhode Island sports bettors since they went live in 2019, so we don’t see the Rhode Island sports betting landscape changing any time soon.
Online Casino
Online casinos are the newest addition to the Rhode Island gambling scene. Governor Dan McKee signed bills S948 and H6348 in June 2023, officially legalizing online casinos in Rhode Island. However, these bills allowed for just one online casino to open in the state. As of March 1, 2024, Bally’s Casino is the only legal online casino site in Rhode Island.
Bally’s has a total monopoly on the Rhode Island gambling market. As we’ll discuss later, Bally’s owns both land-based casinos in the state and has done so since 2021. All of this is to say that the Rhode Island Lottery is very comfortable with having just one casino running everything. Something significant would have to happen for the state to introduce another Rhode Island online casino site to compete with Bally’s in the near future.
Poker
The two bills that legalized online casino gambling in the state also permitted online poker, meaning Rhode Island became the eighth US state to welcome legal online poker in March 2024. However, there are no real money poker games available in the state. Rhode Island law requires all table games, including online poker, to be conducted with a live dealer. Because live dealer poker is such a heavy investment, Bally’s Casino has delayed its plans to open live dealer poker tables in Rhode Island.
Otherwise, Rhode Islanders can play poker at either of the two land-based casinos in the state. Bally’s Twin River Lincoln location, the biggest casino in the state, has over a dozen tables for you to enjoy. You can also play poker in person at Tiverton Casino Hotel. You can play variants like three-card poker, Texas Hold’em, Let It Ride poker, and Pai Gow at either casino.
Daily Fantasy Sports
While there are no laws on the books legalizing DFS in the state, daily fantasy sports are legal in Rhode Island. Former Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin issued a statement on daily fantasy sports in Rhode Island back in 2016, finding that they were not illegal under state law. No new laws have passed since then, meaning DFS is still legal in the state.
Rhode Islanders can play all forms of daily fantasy contests, including pick’em games. FanDuel, DraftKings, and other major DFS apps are free and legal to download in Rhode Island.
Lottery
The first lottery in Rhode Island was established in 1744 before the country’s smallest state was even a state. Decades of alleged corruption, changing political tides, and hardening religious attitudes turned Rhode Islanders against lotteries in the 19th century. They were eventually banned in the state after a rewrite of the Rhode Island Constitution of 1842.
Over 100 years later, in 1973, the state again amended its constitution and established an official state lottery. Since 1974, when the lottery officially started, the Rhode Island Lottery has allowed residents to play lottery games like Mega Millions, Powerball, Keno, and state-sponsored scratch-off games.
Retail Sportsbooks
Rhode Island was one of 7 states to legalize sports betting almost within the same year that the Supreme Court overruled the nationwide ban. Governor Gina Raimondo signed Bill S2045 in November 2018, immediately allowing two retail sportsbooks to open at Bally’s Twin River Tiverton and Twin River Lincoln locations. Both casinos still have retail sportsbook operations to this day.
Land-Based Casinos
Rhode Island is home to two land-based casinos. Both are Bally’s Casinos after the gambling giant bought the company that used to run both locations, Twin Rivers, from Caesars Entertainment in 2020. If you are looking to gamble in-person in Rhode Island, here is what you need to know about the two land-based casinos in the state:
Bally’s Twin River Lincoln
- Address: 100 Twin River Rd, Lincoln, RI 02865.
- Website: https://www.ballys.com/lincoln/
- Phone number: 844-922-5597
Bally’s Twin River Tiverton
- Address: 777 Tiverton Casino Blvd, Tiverton, RI 02878
- Website: https://www.ballys.com/tiverton/
- Phone number: 401-816-6000
Sweepstakes Casinos
Like daily fantasy sports, sweepstakes casinos are legal in Rhode Island because there are no laws on the books outlawing them. Rhode Island gambling laws are only concerned with real money casinos. Because you only gamble with virtual currency at sweepstakes casinos, they are not held to the same licensing requirements as real-money sites. Of course, you can still win real money at sweepstakes casinos in Rhode Island, so they exist in a bit of a gray area.
There are no plans in the works to ban sweepstakes casinos in Rhode Island. In fact, the state has a thriving sweepstakes casino market, with many of the best sweepstakes sites operating in the state.
How are Gambling Sites Regulated in Rhode Island?
The Rhode Island Lottery regulates the entire Rhode Island gambling industry, including Rhode Island gambling sites. The lottery works in collaboration with the Rhode Island police, who are responsible for enforcing criminal gambling laws in the state.
The Rhode Island Lottery was established in 1973 via a state constitutional amendment. Since 1974, the lottery has governed all Rhode Island gambling. The only legal online sports betting site in Rhode Island is owned and operated by the Rhode Island Lottery.
Responsible Gambling in Rhode Island
Rhode Island currently has no state-wide voluntary self-exclusion program. However, Bally’s Casino in the state has a self-exclusion list where players can voluntarily ban themselves from the state’s casinos for one year, five years, or permanently. Opting into the self-exclusion program also prevents you from playing Bally’s Rhode Island online casino site.
There are several organizations offering assistance to problem gamblers in Rhode Island, including:
- Rhode Island National Council on Problem Gambling – The Rhode Island NCPG chapter offers easy access to all the state’s responsible gambling resources in one place. NCPG assistance is available at 401-354-2877.
- Problem Gambling Services of Rhode Island – Helps Rhode Islanders assess whether they are problem gamblers and offers therapy, family assistance, and other problem gambling resources. Call 401-499-2472 to access these resources.
- National Problem Gambling Hotline – Offers 24/7 assistance via a toll-free hotline where problem gamblers can get immediate help, guidance, and direction to other useful resources. Sponsored by the Rhode Island Lottery. Call 800-522-4700.
FAQs
- Is online gambling legal in Rhode Island?
You bet! Most types of online gambling are legal in Rhode Island, including online sports betting, online casino gambling, online poker, daily fantasy sports, and more.
- Can I bet on sports in Rhode Island?
Absolutely! Rhode Island sports betting is completely legal. Rhode Island was one of the first states to legalize sports betting in the United States back in 2018. There are two retail sportsbooks in the state and an online sports betting site run by the state lottery.
- Does Rhode Island have any online casinos?
Of course, there is one legal online casino in Rhode Island, Bally’s Casino. There are also a large number of sweepstakes casinos that are legal in the state.
- Is DFS legal in Rhode Island?
No Rhode Island gambling laws prohibit daily fantasy sports in the state. This means RI bettors can enjoy all forms of daily fantasy contests in state borders, including pick’em games.
- Are Rhode Island online gambling sites safe?
Yes, all legal online gambling sites in Rhode Island are safe to use. These sites include Bally’s Casino, Sportsbook Rhode Island, and the best sweepstakes casinos in Rhode Island.
- Do I have to pay taxes on gambling winnings in Rhode Island?
Lottery winnings, gambling winnings, and winnings from Rhode Island online casino sites are taxable income in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Lottery charges a 5.99% tax rate on all gambling winnings.
