IGT Games Pulled from Rhode Island Casinos
Due to declining casino revenue, International Game Technology (IGT) has been forced by Rhode Island to pull hundreds of its “underperforming” slots from two Twin River casinos.
Slumping Income
The Rhode Island Lottery, the supervisory body which monitors most gaming activity in the state demanded a withdrawal of 360 IGT lottery terminals from the selected gambling venues. In addition, the London-based company declared that it would be taking back an additional 270 machines on its own initiative.
The Reasoning behind the Dramatic Move
The said Twin River establishments suffered substantial decrease in both slots and table game proceeds (-17% for slots and -34% for table games) in July.
On the removal, Gerald Aubin, the Rhode Island Lottery Director, commented that some of the machines in question, “some of which are over 20 years old”, were not only failing to match the minimum revenue generation requirements. According to Aubin, they were also “failing behind machines made by IGT’s competitors”.
A Controversy?
At the moment, IGT provides about 85% of the machines on the two casinos’ floors, besides rivals Everi and Scientific Games. By law, the British company should be allowed only up to 50% of the cabinets, but as the firm had merged with rival GTECH in 2015, IGT was no longer limited by the digits.
Namely, Twin River executives had attempted to cancel the IGT deal allowing the firm to operate at the casinos until 2043. The controversy lies in the support that IGT had in Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.
As a result, Raimondo was subjected to an investigation by the state Ethics Commission. At this point, Twin River is hoping to see the IGT lottery contract taken over, but the positive outcome for the casinos is currently not on the horizon.
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