JONES

PROVIDENCE — As top executives of Harrah’s Entertainment jetted into Rhode Island to check out the potential for a Harrah’s role in the future operation/ownership of Twin River, the state Senate approved legislation bringing the Lincoln track and slot parlor a step closer to a full-scale casino with 24-hour gambling, seven days a week

The legislation, headed for an almost certain veto by Governor Carcieri, also would force the owners of the bankrupt slot parlor to drop their plans to suspend live dog racing on Aug. 8 and run a full 200-day season instead.

The Senate vote was 25 to 10, with President M. Teresa Paiva Weed recusing herself because of her former law firm’s representation of the only other video-slot parlor in the state, Newport Grand.

There was no debate, only a brief lament from Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, that his town had once again been denied a say in a decision to expand gambling at the former Lincoln Downs, that has morphed over the last 62 years from a thoroughbred horse track to a dog track to an all-night slot parlor with 4,751 electronic and virtual video-slots, poker, roulette and blackjack.

“They have never had a chance to vote,” O’Neill said, “except in a non-binding referendum that was held on a Saturday, where they very strongly came out” against the initial push for 24-hour gambling on weekends and holidays only.

The House and Senate approved the bill, despite strong warnings from 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 owners, a subsidiary of BLB Investors, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last week.

Under that plan, Twin River would turn over the keys to the greyhound 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 state’s approval of round-the-clock gambling, which promises to raise an additional $3 million to $4 million in state revenue, and the legislature’s agreement to relieve Twin River of its current obligation to run at least 125 days of greyhound racing each year, which has been a losing proposition.

The owners blame their financial arrangement with the dog owners’ association for some of their money troubles, since the racing only nets them $1.75 million, not nearly enough to cover the $2.5-million expense or the $9-million subsidy they are committed to paying the greyhound owners by contract.

But lobbyists for the dog owners won the lawmakers over with arguments that the elimination of greyhound racing would result in the loss of 225 jobs and $7.5 million in direct and indirect state revenue, including sales and income taxes paid by the workers out of their wages and millions of dollars in slot play by gamblers lured to the track by the dog races.

Meanwhile, two top executives of Harrah’s Entertainment, the Las Vegas-based company that financed the failed 2006 drive for the proposed Narragansett Indian casino in House Speaker William J. Murphy’s hometown of West Warwick, were back at the Rhode Island State House on Tuesday to meet with Murphy.

On her way in and out of the meeting, Harrah’s senior vice president Jan Jones said she was here to get a better understanding of the lay of the land now that Twin River’s owners have filed for bankruptcy. Asked if Harrah’s is interested in buying the facility or simply bidding for the management contract, Jones said: “We are actually looking at all different options,” but “there certainly is resource to invest.” Murphy met with Jones, David Satz, Harrah’s vice president of government relations and development, and lobbyist and onetime Celtics basketball star Kevin Stacom. In an interview afterward, Murphy said: “It is not something we need to get involved in right now, and when I say we, I mean as the House of Representatives. … But they have expressed an interest in the facility in Lincoln ... [and] put it this way: whatever shakes out in bankruptcy court, whatever happens, I would feel very comfortable if Harrah’s came in and were either to be the management company to run the facility, or if Harrah’s, at some point became ... the purchaser of the facility.”

Asked if the Harrah’s delegation mentioned a role for their former casino partners, the Narragansett Indians, Murphy said: “We did not get into specifics.”

Harrah’s is not the only major player in the gambling industry keeping a close eye on developments here.

As a onetime bidder for Twin River, MGM Mirage is also watching developments here closely, and “depending on the outcome of any number of factors, may pursue something,” said spokesman Alan Feldman. Among the key questions: “Will racing remain a requirement? Will there be a required equity contribution? Once these are answered, and there may be others, we’ll be better able to quantify our enthusiasm.”

Asked where MGM stands on the dog racing, Feldman said: “It’s no secret that greyhound racing is growing less financially viable each year. To the extent that the state wishes to have greyhound racing, there may be a number of ways in which to provide it, but … to continue to subsidize it at current levels is simply unsustainable.”

Meanwhile, greyhound racing is about to fold in New Hampshire.

After beating back efforts to ban dog racing in New Hampshire for years, the business is about to voluntarily disappear on its own. Executives at the state’s two remaining tracks, at Seabrook and Belmont, told the New Hampshire Racing and Charitable Gaming Commission they planned to end live racing this summer. A third dog track, in Hinsdale, closed in November after the longtime owner filed for bankruptcy.

kgregg@projo.com