CONCORD — After 18 years of trying, Manchester Sen. Lou D’Allesandro is at it again, with another attempt to authorize casino gambling at two locations in New Hampshire.
Senate Bill 242 cleared the Senate during last Thursday’s marathon session in a bipartisan 13-10 vote, and now needs to clear the five-member Senate Finance Committee today in order to proceed to the House.
It’s prospects are uncertain, since three of the six senators on the Finance Committee voted against the gambling bill on the floor of the Senate. But that doesn’t dissuade the Democratic dean of the Senate, who has fought this fight before.
“If we have to bring it back to the Senate floor and pass it again, that’s what we’ll do,” D’Allesandro said on Monday.
The closest New Hampshire has ever been to legalizing casino gambling came in 2014, when Democrats controlled the House, and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan included casino revenue in her two-year budget.
Despite support from the governor and the Senate, the 2014 bill failed by one vote in the House, 173-172. If he can get his latest bill out of the Senate, D’Allesandro thinks he can make his case to the lower chamber.
“I have reason to believe that if I can talk to them, and I’ll go to them one on one, we have a good chance,” he said. “There are no big outside lobbyists involved now. We are talking about something that’s totally New Hampshire. I have no ulterior motive but to do what I think is in the best interest of the state.”
SB 242 calls for two casinos: one category one license and one category two license. The Category 1 license costs $80 million and allows for 80 to 160 table games and 2,000 to 3,500 slot machines, while the Category 2 license costs $40 million and allows for 25 to 80 table games and 750 to 1,500 slot machines.
Money would go to the host communities and neighboring towns, and the host county, and would enable the state to resume revenue sharing with cities and towns.
The bill as written prohibits the use of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards at casinos, and would fund gambling addiction recovery programs.
The bill is opposed by the Attorney General and the Casino Free NH organization, which has successfully fought off previous efforts.
The fact that Massachusetts and Maine now have operating casinos only intensifies the urgency for New Hampshire to follow, according to D’Allesandro.
“While New Hampshire has done nothing, surrounding states now have gaming entities,” he said. “They advertise on our TV stations and we send buses of New Hampshire residents to those other states to gamble. It’s time for New Hampshire to do something. No state that has done this has crumbled.”
Alice Chamberlain with Casino Free NH testified that the group appreciates that SB 242 tries to address concerns raised in the past, but they still believe the revenue is “unreliable, unpredictable and unsustainable,” and that casino gambling leads to an increase in crime and diminishes property values.
The arguments on both sides are well-worn by now, but each new Legislature brings a new opportunity for D’Allesandro to pursue the cause that has become associated with his lengthy tenure at the State House.
New Hampshire started the first state lottery, and has a long history of gaming going back to horse races at Rockingham Park and dog races in Seabrook, says D’Allesandro, who points to poll after poll that show widespread support for casino gambling in New Hampshire.
“How can 424 people in the Legislature deny the public what it wants, and deny it repeatedly?” he said.
During the campaign, Gov. Chris Sununu said he was open to the idea of casino gambling, but has not staked out a clear position one way or the other.
“I have talked with the governor about it,” said D’Allesandro. “He’s not opposed to it, but he wants to see it, so we’ll let him see it.”
The House has a gambling bill of its own, HB 560, which would authorize Keno at locations licensed by the state lottery commission.
That bill passed the House on March 9 and is headed for hearings in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
Another gambling bill, HB 562, which would allow video gambling, has been retained by the House Ways and Means Committee for further study.
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