CRANSTON — Given the state of the Rhode Island economy, Lottery officials are breathing a sigh of relief.

State revenues from Lottery-sponsored gambling are still lagging behind the $356.4-million projection for this year by $14,126,155, but that is a vast improvement over the $21.3-million gap in February.

And all things considered, a report given to a legislative oversight commission on Monday said “a flat to small growth performance is welcome.”

On the video-gambling front, the report said Twin River and Newport Grand appear to be faring much better than others in the industry, including Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino, which “reported a 15 percent decline over March last year.” By contrast, the report said, “Twin River is holding its own, and Newport Grand recently had its first increase over last year in a long time.”

At Twin River, the dollars left behind in the 4,751 video-slot machines after winning players had been paid was up by 1 percent, from $7.995 million a year ago to $8.088 million during the week ending April 18, after an up-and-down stretch in which a double-digit gain was followed a week later by a double-digit drop.

Last week was not as good a week for Newport Grand: net terminal income dropped 11 percent. But as Lottery Director Gerald Aubin noted in his report, the Newport slot parlor posted a 2 percent gain only three weeks earlier.

Gross sales from the video-slot play at Twin River and Newport Grand and the sale of traditional lottery tickets generated $2,012,312,337 in gross sales through April 18, compared with $1,874,229,885 at the same point a year ago.

Since the first Lottery drawing on May 30, 1974, the report notes, the Lottery has had gross sales of $17.2 billion, paid out $11.8 billion in prizes and turned $3.3 billion over to the state treasury.

kgregg@projo.com