A new bill to legalize online casinos in New Hampshire has appeared in the state Senate, but the same issues that sank the last effort could be a factor again this year. In 2023, concerns over iGaming’s impact on charitable casino gaming in New Hampshire proved sufficient to deny the expansion.
While the 2025 legislation is substantively different from the 2023 bill, a recent study sponsored by the New Hampshire Charitable Gaming Study Commission expresses the same cannibalization concerns. The 2025 bill’s funding measures could provide incentive to support the expansion.
Lang files new bill for 2025
The primary sponsor of SB 168 is Sen. Tim Lang, although the bill has four co-sponsors. Lang was the sponsor of the 2023 proposal.
SB 168 is currently under consideration in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. In 2023, Lang’s proposal narrowly passed in the Senate with a revote.
SB 168 proposes altering the state code to allow the New Hampshire Lottery Commission “to approve licenses for online gaming to no more than six and no fewer than three online gaming wagering platforms.” The bill requires each licensee to “contract with a licensed gaming facility within the state of New Hampshire.”
Under the suggested framework, licensed iGaming platforms would be available to everyone in the state who is at least 18 years old. New Hampshire has the same age minimum for online sports betting.
The bill assesses a 45% tax on gross revenue from online casino play. It also lays out specific uses for those tax funds, including:
- 50% to New Hampshire’s general fund
- 25% to the elderly, disabled, blind, and deaf exemption reimbursement fund
- 25% to the education trust fund
SB 168 does not impose any deadlines on the Lottery Commission to implement the changes. It is also lacking one crucial limitation from the 2023 bill.
SB 168 allows for online slot play
Lang’s 2023 bill limited the new iGaming it proposed to online table games, excluding online slots. That aspect of the bill sought to address concerns that online casino play in New Hampshire would take action away from the brick-and-mortar casinos in the state and thereby reduce revenues for charitable organizations that benefit from that gaming.
SB 168 does not contain a similar exclusion of slot play. Rather, it ties iGaming to land-based gaming through the contracting provision that the 2023 bill did not contain.
That would give as many as six of those casinos a cut of the online casino action. However, the commission’s study shows that cannibalization concerns persist.
Study recommends deliberate approach to gaming expansion
The August 2024 study performed by the Spectrum Gaming Group does address the concept of expanding regulated gaming to include iGaming. However, the recommendation isn’t a positive one for SB 168 at this juncture.
The study characterizes the brick-and-mortar gambling industry in New Hampshire as nascent and recommends that the state reassess the industry in 2031 when a current moratorium on new licenses expires. It continues to say that “it is likely that the competitive landscape surrounding New Hampshire will have changed by then, with the potential for online gaming, online lottery, and/or more casinos in neighboring states (and maybe within New Hampshire itself) — additions that could impact the potential of New Hampshire charitable gaming casinos.”
That recommendation could support opposition to SB 168 in 2025. The 2023 bill did not make it out of the New Hampshire House’s Ways and Means Committee with impacts on charitable revenue a common concern for members.
The tenets of SB 168 seem designed to address those concerns but that was the case for the different set of accommodations in 2023 as well. At minimum, SB 168 keeps the conversation alive in Concord.