PROVIDENCE — While lawmakers are counting on round-the-clock gambling on weekends and holidays at Twin River and Newport Grand to raise upward of $14 million in new money for the cash-strapped state, Governor Carcieri has vetoed the legislation.

In his veto message yesterday, Carcieri repeated his reservations about forcing expanded hours on two communities that have said they do not want it. The Newport City Council unanimously passed a resolution objecting to round-the-clock-gambling; Lincoln voters overwhelmingly rejected the concept during a nonbinding referendum last fall.

“The host communities should have some say when it comes to deciding the hours of operation for these two facilities,” Carcieri said. “Twin River and Newport Grand are very large entities, attracting thousands of people on a daily basis, and while the state generates significant revenue from their operation, Lincoln and Newport are forced to bear the burdens of having such facilities in their communities.”

“It is generally the prerogative of cities and towns to set the hours of operations for restaurants, bars grocery and convenience stores and other businesses,” Carcieri said. “Under the scheme passed by the General Assembly, the people of Lincoln and Newport are at the mercy of large-scale gambling facilities, with no recourse.”

If, however, support holds for the legislation introduced in the House by Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, the House and Senate will be able to easily muster the three-fifths vote required to override the governor’s veto.

House Speaker William J. Murphy and House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox issued a joint statement in which they said they were “disappointed and confused by the Governor’s veto. His argument that the host communities should approve of the extended hours is inconsistent with his past support of the largest expansion of gambling in state history without local approval. The burden imposed by that expansion far exceeds any burden that overnight hours on weekends and holidays only might create.

“Furthermore,” they said, “the General Assembly made a concerted effort to keep the concerns of the local communities in mind by including a one-year trial period to test the extended hours. We also provided an increased local share to offset any additional costs that the host communities might incur.”

“While we appreciate the importance of local input, we don’t believe it can be the deciding factor when state interests are at stake,” they said. “Given the state’s fiscal crisis and the fact that we must maximize the revenue from our existing facilities, we will strongly consider overriding the Governor’s veto in the coming days.”

Carcieri supported a massive expansion of video-gambling activity at Twin River and Newport Grand, including the approval of 1,750 more video-slot machines at Twin River, 800 more at Newport and the addition late last year of “virtual Blackjack,” without local or statewide voter approval. Overall, there are now more than 5,860 approved video-gambling machines.

Asked why Carcieri drew the line at this expansion, spokesman Jeff Neal said: “There is a difference between the addition of more machines during the same operating hours and expanding those hours … the community feels that expanding the hours will impose more of a burden.”

The Senate Fiscal Office has estimated that overnight gambling will generate an additional $24,477,867, with $15,060,606 going to the state. The rest would be split among the owners of the two facilities, the Rhode Island-based GTECH, the two communities and others. A last-minute compromise diverted a projected $1.1 million from the state to Lincoln, one of the communities in Senate President Joseph Montalbano’s home district, and $273,005 to Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed’s hometown of Newport.

While both facilities are privately owned, the video gambling machines are provided and run by the state Lottery.

kgregg@projo.com