New Hampshire state Senator Lou D’Allesandro, who has introduced many ultimately unsuccessful casino bills over the last 20 years, is ready to do battle yet again.
The champion of Granite State gaming is asking lawmakers to focus on gaming now that the state’s focus on presidential politics has passed. He has introduced Senate Bill 551, which would authorize a casino in Salem’s Rockingham Park. The senator claims the casino would generate as much as $100 million in taxes for the state each year. The casino would have about 3,500 video lottery terminals and as many as 160 gaming tables. The Lottery Commission would run the casino and pay 35 percent of revenue from slots and 18 percent of table revenues to the state.
Testifying before the Senate Ways and Means Committee last week he ticked off the differences between this bill and last year’s: “The dramatic difference with this,” he said, “is it designates one site, Rockingham Park in Salem.”
Other beneficiaries of the casino would be Salem itself, which would be paid 3 percent of the revenues, neighboring communities, Rockingham County, with a share going to a gaming regulatory fund.
The senator says its unfortunate that the state didn’t adopt gaming expansion when it first had the chance. He lamented: “Time is not on our side. Time was on our side 20 years ago when it was estimated to bring in $100 million, that would be $2 billion now.”
The state would also collect $80 million from a gaming license, which would be renewable in ten years. He said: “We have gambling all around us but we don’t get the revenue.”
Last week he told Gary Rayno of the Union Leader, “Everywhere I go, people say ‘When will you get it passed? When will you get it passed?’ The public wants it.”
The committee later voted 3-2 to pass the bill onto the Senate. The bill is co-sponsored by Senate President Chuck Morse.
Governor Maggie Hassan has for three years supported a single high-end casino, although this year during her State of the State address she neglected to mention such a proposal.
Similar bills have passed the Senate in the past 20 years only to founder on the rocks of the Granite State’s House of Representatives. According to the “Journal of the House” in excess of 60 such bills have been defeated.
Currently the state bans most gaming activities except for the lottery and simulcast wagering.
