Despite leaving the issue untouched for a few months, New Hampshire is set to debate a bill on online gambling once again.
Back in August, HB 562-FN was given to a sub-committee for further analysis in order to move forward in deciding New Hampshire’s policy on online gambling. However, there had been no news on the bill until now, as it seems legislators are ready to debate the legislative piece promoted by Representatives Nick Zaricki, Eric Schleien, and Robert Fisher.
It is an unexpected move by the state Congress as nothing indicated that they would take up the bill, at least not until October 25, date scheduled for doing so. Nonetheless, the lack of any information on potential progress on the matter had everyone thinking it had died out and that it wouldn’t be discussed.
However, the bill is not designed to give a legal frame to the segment in order to be ready for the Supreme Court’s ruling on PASPA. It just adds the words “gambling done over an internet connection on a website on the internet” to the list of excemptions to gambling offenses.
Despite the seemingly poor addition to state regulation, there has been rumours that it is only designed to set the ground for the legalisation of online lottery in New Hampshire. According to Governor Chris Sununu, full-day kindergarten is set to be fund with revenues from Keno, but first the Congress needs to approve it. In order for that to happen, it is likely that they will merge online lottery authorisation with HB 562-FN, changing the gaming landscape in the state starting January 1, 2018.
