“I can’t believe how many there are. It’s crazy!” said Kateri Fitts, a sports betting novice from New Hampshire, as she flipped through the booklet of propositions at Twin River’s cavernous sports betting lounge bar, which was filled with fans on a recent evening.

LINCOLN, R.I. — Sure, you can put money on a Patriots victory this weekend at the Twin River Casino. But the list of other Super Bowl eventualities you can bet on runs 13 pages long: Which team will take the first timeout? Will the Rams punt before they score? Will the Bruins score more goals Sunday than the number of Patriots field goals?


Always the year’s biggest sports betting event, the 2019 Super Bowl will introduce a new form of gambling to the uninitiated in many states. Sports wagering has been expanding since last spring, when the US Supreme Court allowed states outside of Nevada to legalize it.

This year’s game will also be an important test in Rhode Island, which has seen disappointing returns on sports betting since it became the first New England state to allow such wagering last fall. Massachusetts lawmakers will be watching the Rhode Island returns carefully as they prepare to consider legalization here, including a proposal from Governor Charlie Baker.

In December, the first full month of operations, players wagered $13.1 million in sports betting at Twin River’s casinos in Lincoln and in Tiverton, far short of the $67.8 million the state hopes people will eventually spend each month. The $500,000 in monthly state revenue from the betting was less than a third of what had been expected.

Craig Sculos, general manager of the Twin River, said sports betting has brought a younger clientele into the casino. Barry Chin/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, said numbers like that should be a lesson for government officials everywhere.


“It just shows you have to be very realistic about expectations,” he said. “They see a lot of pent-up demand, and that has a tendency to raise expectations.”

Rhode Island officials cautioned that the revenue figures are likely to grow. The two casinos have still not rolled out the full range of options.

By spring, people will be able to use their mobile phones to bet anywhere on casino property, and the sites will also have digital kiosks that make it easier for people to place bets. (Currently, people placing bets have to buy tickets from a person at one of several designated counters.)

The Rhode Island Legislature is also considering letting gamblers make sports bets from their phones and computers from anywhere in the state.

“We haven’t won as much money as we anticipated, as far as money going into the state coffers,” said Rhode Island Senate president Dominick J. Ruggerio, a Democrat who has been a key advocate for the expansion of sports betting.

But he said the Super Bowl, the NCAA men’s basketball playoffs in March, and other upcoming sporting events could boost interest: “Once it gets up and running full-blown, I think it will be very successful and we’ll do well.”

Some argue that the Rhode Island experience shows Massachusetts a path to maximize state revenue if it chooses to legalize sports betting.

Massachusetts Senator Brendan P. Crighton, a Lynn Democrat, is pushing a bill that would legalize betting online and through mobile phones at the state’s casinos. It would also make mobile betting available through licensed companies that have no relationship with any of the state’s casinos. Baker has made a similar proposal.


“We certainly want people to go to the casinos,” Crighton said. But he added, “For a lot of people, it’s just not an option that they’re going to take up.”

The line for the sports book bar at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, R.I. Barry Chin/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

For the companies trying to bring new customers into the betting market, the Super Bowl is a huge opportunity.

DraftKings, the Boston-based daily fantasy sports company that is moving into sports betting, has become the largest mobile sports wagering service in New Jersey, where companies must work with casinos to offer their own online products.

“If we can get a great turnout for the Super Bowl, we feel like we’ll be able to retain those customers, keep them with DraftKings over the long term,” cofounder Matthew Kalish said. “This is the best excuse people have to sign up for an account.”

So far, the company said it has taken more than $350 million in mobile bets in New Jersey, and it is offering more than 400 possible outcomes to bet on for the Super Bowl. And in the many states where online sports betting is not allowed, DraftKings is introducing itself through a free contest in which players can win money based on the Patriots and Rams scores at the end of each quarter — which is legal because people don’t have to pay to participate.

At the Twin River in Lincoln, the scene last Saturday night would seem to belie the statistics around the rollout. The bar was packed, with patrons crowding nearly every one of the high-top tables and bar stools.


Craig Sculos, general manager of the Twin River, said sports betting has brought a younger clientele into the casino. He said his staff has continually had to adjust to accommodate crowds.

“To this point, it’s delivered exactly what our expectation was. It’s been an amenity that has introduced our facility to, largely, a new group of people,” Sculos said. “There’s a vibrancy to it, particularly during a big sporting event.”

The walls are lined with televisions, but the screens could scarcely keep up with the volume of college basketball games and boxing matches on offer. And plenty of fans were already combing through the Super Bowl bets.

Many of the people there were serious sports gamblers, people who know bookies and are well-versed in how to bet online in a black market that legal gambling companies see as formidable competition. But many came for the atmosphere, or simply the chance to bet legally. To some, the limited availability is a virtue.

Some estimates have said gamblers nationally wager around $100 billion a year on black market sports bets. But that doesn’t mean they like it. One man from the South Shore, who declined to give his name, said he feels hooked on sports betting. Though it’s sometimes fun, he has regrets.

“If I had to do it again, I would have never started gambling,” he said. “Because I’ll never stop.”


At least, the man said, at the casino you can only gamble money you actually have — rather than potentially going into debt to a bookie.

Other fans had a rosier view.

Before the tipoff of a 6 p.m. slate of college basketball games, the line lengthened at the betting window near the bar.

“It beats betting your friends,” said Mark Grayeck, who came with a group from the Providence area to watch the Celtics play the Golden State Warriors and to place some Super Bowl bets. “It’s better to take money from a legalized place or from the state. You guys can win together, versus taking it from your buddy.”

Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com.