Yet Another 'No' to New Hampshire Casinos

Casino gambling in New Hampshire will not be available for residents anytime soon, as least not offline. Yet again the New Hampshire House rejected a proposal to build and legalize two new casinos in the state that would have provided much needed tax revenue. Patricia Lovejoy, a Democratic Rep stated quite simply that, "Casino gambling will not be an asset to New Hampshire," and although supporters of legalized land based casinos in the state thought that it would be a closer call this time around, the 50 vote majority against signalled no real change in favor of building of them.

The main sponsor of the bill, Senator Lou D'Allesandro did have higher hopes for the proposal and after the defeat said that, "I was kind of shocked by the vote, I thought we would do much better." The argument for the building of two new casinos was centered around tax revenue and job creation and like almost all bills of this type it also pushed hard the fact that residents were going interstate to spend money elsewhere. The generation of around $135 million was touted as being what the state could expect in revenue however those against the bill argued that the negative social impact of the casinos would far outweigh any revenue that could be provided by them, and that the revenue itself was unreliable.

The negative vote in New Hampshire clearly shows the huge state by state divide in the US regarding both land based casino gambling and online casino gambling. While states such as New Jersey, although having been through a troubled time with lowering revenues have embraced gambling in the US, it's clear that other states have not and will not. The regulation of online casinos in New Jersey has had many positive impacts and after a slow start it is providing a revenue stream for the state, along with new jobs in a growing sector.