Casino in Quonset?

Trillo to propose Casino, Lincoln administrator objects

Posted: 1/5/2012 1:54:05 PM
Updated: 1/5/2012 2:31:29 PM

Representative Joe Trillo said he is gaining bipartisan support in the General Assembly for a plan to build a “world class casino” in the Quonset Point business park.

“I want to build the biggest world class casino in the state of RI where we currently have resources that no one can compete with,” Trillo toldWPRO’s Dan Yorke. Trillo said that the nearby golf course, highway, and the ocean front access would attract vacationers and even cruise ships to Rhode Island.

Despite claims that the port can’t sustain thousand foot cruise ships Trillo says he knows it can and that “no dredging would be necessary.”

Trillo said this casino would be a win-win for an economically devastated state. “It will create 20,000 jobs, it will save $300 million dollars and it will create another $200 million in revenue.” Currently, RI stands to lose $300 million dollars in gambling revenue to Massachusetts casinos.

Lincoln Town Administator Joe Almond disagreed. “All you’re going to do by opening a big casino in Quonset is move all the employees and all the revenue from Lincoln and exhaust one of our most valuable resources, our port,” Almond told WPRO’s Dan Yorke and Rep. Trillo.

Currently, he says 35 of his collegues support his plan and he has hired a consultant to evaluate the market.

Trillo said there is clearly a market for a casino in the area because Steven Wynn has proposed one in Foxboro right over the border of Rhode Island. “The tide is right to do this, this project would not have even been talked about 5 years ago, three years ago,” said Trillo. Trillo says the approval of casinos in Massachusetts has given Rhode Islanders the appetite to have a casino in the state.

“Nobody is going to come and invest the kind of money you are talking about,” said Almond to Trillo. Almond said that the market has been researched and area casinos are struggling making it unlikely that a casino at Quonset would be successful. Instead he said that the state should “secure the market we have by supporting the facilities that we have.”

Trillo argues that his casino could offer a bigger and better facility. "Nobody can compete with something that is on the water, that can dock crusise ships, that has a golf course, that has a bike path, that has three marinas, a near-by airport and a super highway," said Trillo.

The diagram that Trillo has made to demonstrate the casino proposes that the first floor of the casino resort would be 2.5 million square feet and the casino alone would be 5,000 square feet. Aside from the casino and accomodations, Trillo says he envisions the resort containing an indoor amusement park, a museam, and an aquarium among other attractions.

Trillo said that if the casino is done right it will attract people from all over the country and world to the destination.

Larger Diagram of Trillo's Quonset Casino: