NH House Kills Casino Bill HB 665 - Granite Grok

NH House Kills Casino Bill HB 665

From Jim Rubens for the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling.

Maggie Hassan Rolls the Dice on Imaginary Gambling Revenu

Immediate Release: House Kills 2-Casino Bill By Nearly 4-1 Margin
Contact: Jim Rubens, (603) 359-3300

This morning the House killed HB665 by a 249-65. HB665 would have permitted two casinos, one in the North Country and one along the Massachusetts border.

“Today’s vote shows how little support exists for a casino bill lacking the muscle provided by the construction unions and Millennium Gaming’s fleet of lobbyists and PR flaks,” said Jim Rubens, chairman of Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling. “On its objective merit, casino gambling utterly fails among legislators weighing the arguments on both sides.”

Jim goes on to point out some things about another gambling bill, SB152.

“We expect a much tougher fight over SB152, written almost verbatim by Millennium’s lobbyists and which would grant a casino monopoly to Millennium in return for $80 million in phantom license money,” said Rubens.

We encourage everyone wanting a state budget balanced using real revenues to call their legislator asking them to vote against SB152.

GSCAEG’s reasons for opposing SB152 include:

  1. Including casino licensing revenues in the state budget is a recipe for budget chaos and broken promises, due to the 2 year minimum delay required to adopt regulations, select among competing casino bidders, complete background checks, secure local permits, and conclude litigation.
  2. The recklessly rushed licensing and regulatory process in SB152 designed to get $80 million in one-time and highly uncertain casino license money into the budget will result in irreversible mistakes and, potentially, corruption.
  3. New Hampshire’s gambling regulators are far from ready to handle casinos. The New Hampshire state auditor found in 2005 that the Pari-Mutuel Commission (now, the Racing & Charitable Gaming Commission) was stained by a multi-year pattern of self-dealing, evasion of legislative budget authority and sloppy record keeping (audit summary, full report). In 2005, the NH PMC failed to detect a $200 million, multi-year Gambino crime family illegal gambling and money-laundering operation at the former Lakes Region Greyhound track. Again, in 2009, the Racing & Charitable Gaming Commission failed to prevent the bankrupt owners of the Hinsdale track from taking money from customer gambling accounts.
  4. For those looking for state budget alternatives to casino license money, serious debate will not begin until SB152 is soundly defeated on the House floor.
  5. The New England casino market is saturated, limiting NH to local-market convenience casinos and slots barns which will not attract promised out-of-state gambling dollars.
  6. Distant communities are not protected: Because they do not create any exportable product or value-added service, casinos simply displace or cannibalize jobs and consumer spending from thousands of existing New Hampshire businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations within the surrounding 30-45 minute drive-time radius.
  7. A single Salem casino would create 10,000 new gambling addicts and cause 1,200 additional serious and violent crimes per year, according to the Governor’s Gaming Study Commission. Only 10 percent of gambling addicts use available addiction treatment programs.
  8. Slot machine casinos would wipe out charity gaming.
  9. If even one is legalized, there is no viable means to stop casinos and tacky slots parlors from proliferating throughout the state.
>