New Hampshire, like many states seems to be eager to make sports betting legal. At the very least, they have put sports betting legislation on the docket for the 2019 legislature.
Bill HB480 would make betting online, on mobile devices and at specially designated facilities legal. Currently the bill remains in the committee stage and legislators will return to debate the bill further in the next session that begins on February 14th.
Proponents of sports gambling should know that New Hampshire’s governor Chris Sununu appears to be a champion of legalizing sports gambling. The current bill has nine co-sponsors from a bipartisan group in the state congress.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s a done deal. Rather, this bill shows the intricacies of regulation– particularly on a subject that New Hampshire is wrestling on numerous fronts.
Also in the most ideal conditions, legislation is hardly ever a simple process. Contending concepts and logistics often stall bills in statehouses throughout the nation, especially when the topic of legalized gambling is the topic being taken into consideration.
Among the issues to overcome is the state’s existing entity around high-profile gaming.
At the federal level, the Department of Justice recently reinterpreted the Federal Wire Act which was put in place in 1961. This bill deals with lottery revenues and how that revenue would be taxed and that has implication on sports lotteries. The new interpretation says the original bill implicates all manner of interstate gambling and not only gambling on sports.
State officials have actually vowed to test the new judgment in court as a way to save an approximated $5 million in annual state tax obligation incomes from lottery sales. Along with amicus obstacles from other states, the new ruling will assuredly become held up in court, leaving the destiny of the financially rewarding lotto game, and also various other wagering entities, undetermined for the immediate future.
The pending legal obstacles are definitely on the minds of legislators as they take into consideration next actions towards the passage of sports betting legalisation. HB480 is centered around the New Hampshire Lottery, which would certainly have oversight authority over the new gaming offering, so these legal difficulties can alter or possibly even derail the push for sports wagering.
Meanwhile, legislators are additionally advocating for an additional type of gaming growth. A bill introduced in the New Hampshire senate would certainly broaden wagering options by permitting two video lottery and table gaming facilities – an additional major development in a state without numerous standard video gaming locations.
These steps underscore the momentum behind betting expansion in New Hampshire, yet likewise highlights the unpredictability of modifications to the law, at the state level.
Numerous New Hampshire neighbors are also taking into consideration major video gaming expansion actions regardless of the enigma surrounding the sector.
Recently, Rhode Island became the eighth state in the nation to take a legal sports bet as well as the first in New England. With 2 casinos taking wagers convenient to both Massachusetts and also Connecticut, it’s no surprise that other nearby states such as New Hampshire are seeking measures of their very own.
Substantial moves by Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island help explain the push to get some form of legalized gambling on the books in New Hampshire. In the next 2-5 years it appears that as many as two dozen states will be ready to bring legalized sports gambling to their citizens.