The New Hampshire legislature is moving forward on authorizing sports betting at the same time that it is applying the brakes to a bill that would approve of casinos in the Granite State. If approved, New Hampshire would be the second state in New England to legalize sports book, after Rhode Island.
Last week the Senate Committee on Ways and Means began hearings on HB 480 which would put the New Hampshire Lottery Commission in charge of sports betting. The discussion focused on online vendors and limited licenses.
One of the sponsors, Rep. Timothy Long, said he expects a Senate vote on his bill that the House overwhelmingly passed in March within three weeks.
The Senate committee heard testimony about mobile sports betting, including the question of how many online vendors the lottery could form partnerships with. It also discussed retail sales, and whether there should be limits on the number of license that could be issued to brick and mortar operations. One amendment to the bill would limit the licenses to 10. Lang would prefer that decision be left to the Lottery.
He told Sports Handle, “Who divvies up where they will go?” adding, “What happens if all 10 wind up in one geographical area?” Lang favors opening mobile sports book to multiple operators. His bill would encourage the lottery to decide how many operators it could partner with, similar to New Jersey, where there are a dozen online operators.
Senator Lou D’Allesandro, the dean of the New Hampshire senate, attended the hearings to promote his SB 310, which would authorize two VLT casinos along with authorizing sports betting facilities at those casinos. The senator has tried and failed many times during the last 20 years to persuade the House to support various casino bills, most of which passed in the Senate, only to crash on the rocks of the House.
His bitterest disappointment came in 2014 when he bill to authorize two casinos lost by one vote in the House. But last week’s vote by the House Ways and Means Committee 17-2 to oppose his bill seems to forecast a similar future this year.
Lang speculated on D’Allesandro’s chances this time around. “Some people don’t want any casino gaming and those who want it don’t want it to be licensed by only two operators,” he said, predicting more opposition in the House.
Governor Chris Sununu indicated his support for sports betting in February when he included in his two-year budget $10 million in sports book revenues. During his budget address the governor declared, “Given our new opportunities to legalize sports betting in a responsible and reliable way, and capture more revenue for our education system, I say we go all in and get it done.”
But Lang also preaches the benefits of moving consumers out of the shadows and into a well-regulated and well-protected sports betting environment. The Lottery Commission estimates that the state’s sports betting market is as high as $300 million in gross sales. It estimates that in a legal environment sports betting would be about $225 million. If that is taxed at 5 percent, the state would collect about $11.25 million the first year, increasing to $12.5 million by FY 2023, says the commission.
