A freshmen Rhode Island lawmaker is pushing a bill that will he read for the first time next week, the bill is aimed at helping curb teen gambling by raising the legal gambling age from 18 to 21 in all of Rhode Islands legalized gambling parlors and racetracks.
After the bills official reading it will be assigned to a committee for further discussion and investigation.
According to the house speaker a similar bill was drafted in 2002 but failed to get enough votes to pass.
The lawmaker who started this new bill is a mother of 4 and says that she wanted to help stop children from becoming addicted to gambling or from picking up a vice that will stay with them for ever and prevent them from losing all their money.
Besides gambling parlors and race track the law would affect the state run lottery and keno games as well.
Requests for comments from
Rhode Island's gambling parlors went unanswered but a spokesperson from the state lottery said they had no position of the new bill.
