Sen. Frank Ciccone is a sponsor of the bill requiring dog racing.

Journal files/ Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — With the fate of the bankrupt Twin River hanging over the closing hours of the General Assembly, the House voted on Friday to allow round-the-clock gambling at the Lincoln track and slot parlor seven days a week, and force the current owners to drop their plans to suspend live dog racing on Aug. 8, and run a full 200-day season.

The final vote was 61 to 9, despite strong warnings a day earlier by Gary Sasse, the director of the state Department of Administration, that the state could lose upward of $25 million in needed gambling revenue if legislators interfere with the restructuring plan that Twin River’s owners, lenders and the state proposed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court earlier this week.

Under that plan, Twin River would turn over the keys to the 62-year-old track and slot parlor to its lenders, who would be free to bring in a new operator, within 120 days, unless an alternate agreement was reached. The agreement hinged, in part, on the legislature agreeing to relieve Twin River of its current obligation to run at least 125 days of greyhound racing each year, in order to operate the video-slots, and also on the extension of overnight gambling from weekends and holidays only, to seven days a week.

The hangup: the dog owners, who are reliable campaign contributors with strong supporters at the State House.

In a letter to House Finance Chairman Steven M. Costantino on Thursday, Sasse wrote: “To the extent that the enactment of the legislation were to interfere with the completion of the restructuring agreement, the legislation could actually result in the BLB bankruptcy filing becoming a protracted, free-fall proceeding — as opposed to a consensual one — which could result in the state incurring millions of dollars in related expenses, as well as an estimated decrease of 10 percent or more in revenues to the state from the facility.”

Governor Carcieri left no doubt he would veto the bill. Even if legislators override his veto, it remains unclear what might happen next, though the bankruptcy judge could still possibly void the contract committing Twin River to pay dog owners a $9-million annual subsidy, leaving the kennel owners to fend for themselves without it.

But attempts to wrap up the six-month-long General Assembly session sometime late Friday — or early Saturday morning — hung for hours on the dogs and their owners, most of whom live out of state.

The Senate would not post the $7.8-billion state budget for a vote until the dog-racing bill had its vote. Labor leaders lined up solidly in support of the bill at a hearing a night earlier. House leaders placed the controversial bill to force Twin River to keep live racing far, far down on their calendar in an obvious move to buy themselves time to muster the votes that would be necessary to withstand the certain veto.

Then, in a surprise move shortly before 5 p.m., House leaders opened the debate on the multi-pronged bill to:

•Allow round-the-clock gambling at Twin River, seven days a week, a move expected to generate an additional $3 million to $4 million more for the state.

•Require the owners to drop their plans to suspend racing on Aug. 8 after running the minimum 125 days of racing, and run a full season of 200 days instead.

•Preserve the $784,458 one-year extra shot of the video slot revenue that lawmakers promised the Town of Lincoln, as compensation for the state’s decision to allow overnight gambling, at that point, on weekends and holidays only.

The gambling venue, with 12 greyhound kennels, an estimated 1,200 dogs and 4,751 video slots, is owned by UTGR, a subsidiary of BLB Investors, which bought the Lincoln Park dog track in 2005, and then embarked on a $220-million renovation and expansion. The partners include Kerzner International Limited, Starwood Capital Group and Waterford Group LLC.

The bill sponsored earlier in the year by Sen. Frank Ciccone, a field agent for the Rhode Island Laborers District Council, made it hard for some to say yes and others to say no with millions of new gambling dollars at stake for the state along with the fate of the dogs the bankrupt owners of Twin River say they cannot afford to run at a loss of more than $10 million a year.

On one side stood the dog owners’ $5,000-a-month lobbyist, former Warwick Mayor Joseph Walsh, and on the other, lobbyists Robert Goldberg and Marc Crisafulli, both representing Twin River, at $10,000 a month, and GTECH, which agreed to pay Goldberg $210,000 for the year, and Crisafulli, $7,500 a month.

During the high-pitched House debate, opponents called it a “major mistake” to interrupt the bankruptcy proceeding, which hinges, in part, on relieving the owners of responsibility to run the dog races, which cost Twin River more than five times the $1.75 million they earn under the terms of a $9-million annual subsidy agreement, with 11 years to go.

“I always get concerned when we try to make business decisions. I really do. It scares the hell out of me out of me,” said Rep. Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick. “We are playing with [$245 million] and we’re telling the executives who run this operation we know more than you do.”

Trillo said he has “nothing against the dog owners. They are all wonderful people [who] had a great ride for 20 years,” with the state paying them as much as $11 million to $12 million annually until it ended its own subsidy five years ago.

“We have taken about 10 dog owners and made them multimillionaires,” Trillo said. “But times are changing: the same way the horses went out, the dogs are going out. … Let them go. They will all find nice homes. Maybe you can adopt some of [these] dogs. They’ll all be available for you to adopt, and if you feel so bad for them, take one home with you, but don’t stick your noses into a business plan, into a bankruptcy agreement right now while we have [$245] million at stake.”

But supporters stuck to their argument that the state also cannot afford to lose the 225 jobs connected directly and indirectly to greyhound racing, and a potential $7.5 million in state revenue, most of it coming from gamblers that they say are drawn to Twin River by the dog races.

Under the agreement filed in bankruptcy court, Twin River’s lenders — led by Merrill Lynch Capital, now a subsidiary of Bank of America — agreed to write off $290 million of the $589 million loaned to Twin River’s owners.

But Rep. Charlene Lima who, along with freshman Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence, has been the staunchest defender of the dog owners, alleged the banks would get a “sweetheart deal” if they were allowed to drop the dog racing and the promised $9-million subsidy that goes with it.

“The banks got a heck of a deal,” argued Lima, D-Cranston. “What they are doing is they are hiding behind bankruptcy to line the pockets of the big banks.”

The legislation needs to make one more swing through the Senate, which passed it earlier this year, because of the changes made to it in the House.

kgregg@projo.com