New Hampshire Emerges as Online Gambling Hopeful
Published August 28, 2017 by Elana K
Hopes for online gambling were revived last week as a hearing was scheduled for September 6 to discuss H 562, a bill that has the potential to legalize online gambling within state borders.
When New Hampshire introduced an online gambling bill way back in January 2017, hopes rose - and were soon dashed - when the legislature simply sat and refused to push the bill forward. Last week, however, hopes were revived as a hearing was scheduled for September 6 to discuss H 562, a bill that has the potential to legalize online gambling within state borders.
About the Bill
H 562 is not a regular bill, but rather, a placeholder bill, which means the text is general and leaves a lot of room for discussion of regulations and legislation. The bill is short, and the text is as follows:
This bill exempts gambling done over the Internet from gambling offenses under RSA 647. The Department of Justice to date has neither investigated nor prosecuted online gaming offenses and therefore does not expect this bill to have any impact on expenditures.
To the extent this bill legalizes a form of gambling, it may have an indeterminable impact on lottery and charitable gaming revenue. Lottery and charitable gaming revenue is credited to the lottery fund, with net revenues after Lottery Commission expenditures being credited to the state education trust fund.
What Will Online Gaming Look Like in New Hampshire?
The vagueness of the bill’s wording leaves room for interpretation. New Hampshire may be seeking to replicate the UK’s market, which allows operators from around the world to offer sites to local residents. Or, they might be seeking to implement something similar to Delaware, in which online casinos would be state-run.
And since New Hampshire recently legalized online lottery sales in June, having the state lottery run online casino operations could make sense.
However, since New Hampshire is not a casino-state, it’s unclear exactly how the proposed bill will be implemented. The first step, though, is to get it approved, and then to move on to the specifics.
