New Hampshire’s Concord Casino in January was ordered to shut down and owner Andy Sanborn was ordered to sell the business within six months. Sanborn was found to have fraudulently applied for hundreds of thousands of dollars of pandemic relief. Sanborn hasn’t found a buyer yet, the Concord Monitor reported April 16.
New Hampshire Lottery Executive Director Charlie McIntyre told the Monitor: “There’s been no change in the status of the Concord facility. There has been no sale.” If the sale to someone the Lottery Commission approves of doesn’t happen, the casino will lose its license.
At the same time, the more than 30 charities that depend on the casino have lost their source of revenue, which comes from historical horse racing machines.
Sanborn is a former state senator, who received $844,000 in pandemic relief intended for small businesses, only to later be deemed unsuitable to operate charity gaming. He deceived federal officials by not listing the business as a casino, instead maintaining that the company was a charitable gaming consultancy.
Should the casino sell, the new owner would be subject to a suitability review by the Lottery Commission’s compliance division.
In a related but separate development, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu recently signed HB 1203 into law which makes it illegal to charge rent to nonprofits that benefit from charitable gaming, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported April 16.
The charities have complained that casino operators charged rent for casino space and equipment. The legislature responded quickly by passing the bill on a voice vote without any debate.
