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WITH MASSACHUSETTS poised to pass gaming legislation that would provide casino gaming and thousands of slot machines a few miles from our border, Rhode Island will be sandwiched between two colliding hurricanes that will bring unfathomable calamity to our already sinking economy.

How did we ever allow ourselves to get into this position? Academics, top forecasters and industry experts predicted this perfect storm years ago.

In the backdrop of staggering deficits, uncontrolled spending and blind economic development programs that promote housekeeping jobs and fast fryers over the obvious long-term benefit of the development of a deep-water port, the state has charted a course to peril.

Adding to this financial storm is the looming threat from Massachusetts. By most accounts, Massachusetts, at the very least, will allow thousands of VLTs (video slot machines) in their race tracks at Plainridge, Suffolk and Taunton-Raynham (of which two are near our border).

Rhode Island banks on about $250 million a year from the VLTs and virtual blackjack machines, placed in our two “convenience gaming” facilities, Twin River and Newport Grand, making it the third-largest revenue source in our state budget. Of that hefty amount, close to 40 percent — an estimated $117.4 million — comes from Massachusetts, according to a 2009 study by the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts, directed by Prof. Clyde W. Barrow.

The Center for Policy Analysis also finds that 70 to 90 percent of the two facilities’ customers came from within a 45-minute radius. With Plainridge and Taunton-Rayhnam on our borders, they have no reason to travel farther down the road.

Adding insult to injury, it is also an accepted fact that the people who enjoy casino gaming — or “destination gaming” — are not likely to frequent the convenience gaming facilities.

Again, according to Professor Barrow, 75-80 percent of the people who gamble at Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun never go to slot parlors. Those patrons prefer the full menu of gaming and non-gaming amenities that destination casinos offer, such as table games, high-stakes bingo, poker, theaters, cabarets, hotels, spas and retail shops.

Rhode Island missed its chance to be ahead of the game. The Narragansett Indian casino proposed in West Warwick went down in flames after a carefully organized, well-financed opposition led by some state leaders (the General Assembly, however, supported the people’s right to vote on three separate occasions), the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. We later learned that most of the multimillions spent in opposition to the casino proposal came from Twin River and Newport Grand (mostly the former).

It was simply a case of the haves protecting the haves.

Twin River’s owner, UTGR Inc., a subsidiary of BLB Investors, a partnership consisting of Kerzner International Limited, Waterford Group LLC and Starwood Capital Group, led by South African casino magnate Sol Kerzner (developer of Mohegan Sun), had a lot at stake. In this year alone, it is projected to receive an estimated $107.6 million as its share of the revenue from Twin River.

BLB officials, who enjoyed a no-bid contract for their gaming license and highly unusual “profit protection clause” to guard against any casino competition, have filed for bankruptcy protection and stand on Smith Hill with a tin cup complaining about the state’s 60-percent gaming tax affecting their viability (something they proudly boasted of in TV commercials during the 2006 battle against the Narragansett Indian casino).

But perhaps the most insulting aspect of state and business leaders’ opposition to a world-class destination casino was their failure to protect Rhode Island’s fiscal and economic interests. That’s because no one demanded that Twin River’s owners sign a non-compete clause to ensure that they would not build a competing slot parlor or resort casino in a bordering state.

The result of that failure? With Twin River’s owners pleading poormouth with Rhode Island officials for a taxpayer funded bailout, they are simultaneously spending millions of dollars just 25 miles away in Middleboro, Mass., committed to building a $1 billion destination resort casino.

It’s time to let the market take its course. If the owners who have pledged billions of dollars up the road in Massachusetts refuse to inject more capital into Twin River, then bankruptcy seems inevitable. With it, new opportunity will ultimately be afforded the state. Rhode Island could seek a temporary operator and competitively bid for the facility and the valuable license. But it should not stop there. Rhode Island should immediately move to provide full-scale casino gaming at Twin River. But not under the current ownership.

We have two ways to accomplish that. We can use the legislative process to call for a change to the state constitution — a choice that Rhode Island voters have already resoundingly rejected and one that could take years to pass — or we can consider a choice that would catapult us ahead of Massachusetts and stop the bleeding immediately: a partnership with the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

The tribe is the only Indian tribe in America that has been involuntarily stripped of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act’s rights. If the tribe had those rights restored, it could, along with the state, invoke the 50-mile radius rule (which determines where a tribe can site a casino) and purchase Twin River with the state as its partner. It could then conduct a competitive process to provide for a world-class casino operator and design a partnership that protects the taxpayers. Twin River could then immediately move to become a full-scale, Class 3 casino and build the accompanying facilities to let it compete with gambling facilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts. All this could be done within months, as opposed to years.

All it would take would be the political will of our local leaders, the assistance of our fine congressional delegation, and a little push from the Obama administration, which has made fairness a central focus.

We simply no longer have the time to wait. And as the old nautical saying goes: We cannot direct the winds, but we can adjust the sails.

J. Michael Levesque is a former mayor of West Warwick and long-time supporter of the Narragansett Indian Tribe and casino gaming in Rhode Island.