PROVIDENCE — As Twin River’s owners struggle to pay back the hundreds of millions of dollars they borrowed to buy and renovate their sprawling video-slot emporium, the state has — very quietly — taken steps to safeguard its share of the money “in the event of a bankruptcy filing.”

Business is still brisk at the refurbished greyhound racetrack with 4,751 video-slots.

Revenues shot up nearly 9 percent in May with the introduction of 24-hour gambling on week-ends and holidays. With Rhode Island’s cash-strapped government heavily dependent on gambling money, the spurt came as welcome news.

Out of every dollar lost into one of the machines, the state gets close to 60 cents. If expectations play out, that would translate into $254,459,280 for the state this year.

But in private talks with the governor’s staff and top lawmakers last month, Twin River’s owners painted such a dire picture of their financial circumstances that state officials felt compelled to take extra steps to safeguard those dollars.

In e-mails and an interview last week, state revenue director Gary Sasse spelled out some of the “additional measures that have been put in place to ensure protection of state funds in the event of a bankruptcy filing or possible interruption of transfer of funds.”

Here’s how it worked before the warnings of financial trouble at Twin River: the state Lottery would get daily wire transfers every Tuesday through Thursday of the cash on hand at the close of business the previous day, after the players had redeemed their winnings. The state would take its share and then divvy up the amounts owed each of the other “partners” in the Lottery-sponsored slot operation housed at Twin River, including Twin River’s owners.

“On weekends and holidays, Twin River contracted with an armored car service to pick up the cash counted in the money room.”

But that was before. As Sasse explains the new daily routine:

“Monday through Friday, a Lottery representative is now present in the Twin River accounting room to confirm the receipt of the fax from the Lottery indicating the amount to be transferred. The Lottery representative then confirms to Lottery management that the wire transfer has been sent from Twin River to the Lottery’s account.

“On weekends and holidays, a Lottery representative is now present in the Twin River money room to verify the completion of the count, examine the deposit slips, and observe the physical pick-up of the money by an armored car service from the money room,” and “the Rhode Island Lottery now contracts with an armored car service to pick up the cash counted in the money room to be brought to the State’s bank.”

Asked why the state has taken these steps, Sasse said: “It’s obvious. We are exercising what we believe to be appropriate due diligence. We are confident that the business is strong. But we certainly have an obligation to the taxpayers to prepare for all contingencies.”

The state already had authority to withhold Twin River’s share of the money — also known as a “commission”— for up to two weeks. As of late last week, that amounted to “approximately 4.5 million dollars.” The Lottery also “has the ability to stop payment of a commission.” But, Sasse said, the state has not seen the need.

The depth of Twin River’s financial trouble did not come to light until its owners visited the State House last month with a proposal aimed at bailing them out of a “dire” financial crisis.

They offered the state upward of $500 million up front in return for slicing by more than half the percentage of money the state gets from the slot parlor, from 61.45 percent to 25 percent.

At that point, Twin River had missed payments on $577 million in loans. The slot parlor’s inability to make the loan payments triggered ratings downgrades by Standard & Poor’s Corp., which said: “The downgrade reflects our ongoing concerns about a potential bankruptcy filing as the company reportedly continues to negotiate a forbearance agreement with its lenders.”

The notion behind the company’s State House appeal: a significant reduction in Twin River’s obligations to the state might not only appease the lenders, it might also help the state out of its own financial mess. “The situation is dire. We are standing on the edge of a precipice,” Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle said at the time.

Asked how Twin River’s owners could afford to offer the state a $500-million upfront payment when they couldn’t afford to pay off their outstanding loans, Doyle said: “If we are able to reduce our tax rate overall, the lending community will look more favorably on our relationship with the state” and presumably will be “willing to advance the upfront payment.”

State officials did not bite.

To date, however, neither the governor’s office nor the top lawmakers who took part in the private talks with Twin River have been willing to make public the company’s Power Point presentation and any other relevant documents. Responding to The Journal’s June 16 request for the documents, lawyer Daniel W. Majcher wrote on June 27: “The office of the governor will not be able to accommodate your request within 10 business days.” He cited an unexplained need for 20 more business days, which would push the response deadline to July 29.

Meanwhile, the Twin River buffet has closed. A 200-seat Subway sandwich shop has won town permission to move in. Doyle said Johnny Rockets and Häagen-Dazs “have committed to opening in that same, reconfigured space.”

The spurt of new revenue from overnight gambling has already slowed. Slot income leaped from $34.2 million to $38.9 million in May, over the same month a year earlier. In the traditionally slower month of June, it inched from $32.4 million last year to $33.9 million.

And the clock is ticking.

Doyle said: “The forbearance agreement deadline is July 30. We are meeting aggressively with stakeholders and our lenders to arrive at a satisfactory solution to our short-term cash flow needs.”

Twin River is owned by a consortium of Kerzner International, a Bahamas-based casino and resort operator that helped develop the Mohegan Sun casino; the Waterford Group, which owns or manages 22 hotels and the Connecticut Convention Center, in Hartford; and Starwood Capital, an affiliate of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Mark Wolman of the Waterford Group and Sol Kerzner of Kerzner International are the primary financial backers of the Mashpee Wampanoags’ attempt to open a casino in Middleboro, Mass.

kgregg@projo.com