PROVIDENCE — Legislation to allow 24-hour gambling at the state’s two slot parlors in Lincoln and Newport on weekends and holiday eves won House Finance Committee approval last night, a day after a key Senate committee approved a matching bill.

The House committee vote was 12 to 3, despite an eleventh-hour appeal by opponents to halt the state’s ever-increasing reliance on gambling to plug budget holes and, at the very least, earmark a portion of the anticipated new revenue to problem-gambling prevention and treatment.

“Let’s not do this to people who are weak and let’s not do it to people who get hooked,” implored former state Rep. Rodney Driver, of Richmond.

There is plenty of time now for “the normal people, let’s say the 90 percent or 85 percent of the people now who don’t abuse gambling … to be able to go in and gamble, if they like to, as their entertainment,” added current Rep. Victor Moffitt, R-Coventry, “but if we keep expanding the hours … what are we going to do next year?”

“I could give you hundreds of examples from my tax practice of people who have lost” their retirement nest eggs, added Moffitt. “I mean at some point we have to say no and look for other ways to balance our budget without more money from gambling.”

But in a year when the state is facing a massive budget deficit, the majority decided they could not pass up projections that overnight gambling on weekends and holiday eves could produce a potential $14.8 million in additional revenue for the state.

The move could also generate an additional $5.9 million annually for the owners of the Lincoln dog track and slot parlor, an additional $752,866 for the owners of the former Newport jai alai fronton, an extra $266,270 for the Town of Lincoln, $29,246 for the City of Newport and millions more for Rhode Island-based GTECH and other suppliers of the acres of Lottery-sponsored video-gambling machines at the two facilities, according to Senate Fiscal Office projections.

But those projections were based on Senate Fiscal Advisor Russell Dannecker’s understanding that the Senate sponsors only intended to allow round-the-clock gambling on weekends and the overnight hours before a Monday holiday.

Yesterday, the lead House sponsor, Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, said he believes the bill would allow gambling through the night before any state or federally recognized holiday, including Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, regardless of what day they fall on.

The bill also allows the two slot parlors to remain open until 3 a.m. every day, which is an hour later for the Twin River greyhound track and video-slot parlor, and two hours later at Newport Grand.

The only nay votes came from Democrat J. Russell Jackson, whose district includes Newport, and Republicans Moffitt and John Savage of East Providence.

With two matching bills now headed to the House and the Senate for consideration, possibly as early as next week, there is no longer any doubt that gambling is part of this budget fix for next year and possibly, the final months of this fiscal year which ends on June 30.

House Fiscal Advisor Michael O’Keefe told the lawmakers that the $14.8-million projection that Dannecker presented to the Senate Constitutional and Regulatory Issues Committee on Wednesday was actually the “best guess” of the financial staff in the House, the Senate and Twin River’s owners.

The state budget office declined to produce its own estimate, while saying the move could produce “indeterminate but not necessarily unsubstantial” new revenue for the state.

In its fiscal note on the legislation, the budget office said: peak hours currently are between 2 and 3 p.m., and 7 and 9 p.m. with a distinct drop in the two to three hours before closing. “It is uncertain whether gamers would continue to display the same behavior and leave at the same time each evening, stay several more hours or just a few. It is also questionable whether gamers have a set amount of disposable income for spending at gaming facilities or if they would be able to maintain their spending into later hours.”

On the other hand, “many players currently leave in advance of closing time in order to avoid encountering a log jam at the validation windows and valet parking,” while “many potential visitors to the facilities who are leaving another evening activity or getting out of a 2nd or 3rd shift job will now go directly to Connecticut rather than a Rhode Island facility because they know their time would be limited with the current closing times of 1 a.m. at Newport Grand and 2 a.m. at Twin River.”

But looking at both sides: “It may not be an inducement of new players, but rather keeping the existing players at Twin River and Newport Grand.”

Speaking up for the Rhode Island Council on Problem Gambling, John Mongelli urged the lawmakers to earmark more than the $149,641 they provided last year for gambling-addiction treatment, out of the $1.8 billion annual state-run gambling business. By his estimates, the Lottery spent another $34,994 that year on a call-in gambling hotline.

kgregg@projo.com