Jackpot? How NH’s determination to double down on playing is enjoying out

The most important foyer of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission’s headquarters in Concord has undeniably good vitality. People who hit the jackpot on a scratch ticket or Megabucks stroll in to assert their prizes. There are massive checks and large smiles.

The different man on this constructing with good purpose to smile is Charlie McIntyre, the state lottery’s govt director. The numbers alone clarify his upbeat temper.

“When I started here, my first year, our return was $62 million. This year it’ll be $250 million,” he says.

There was a time, not way back, when legalized playing divided New Hampshire lawmakers. It was a perennial marketing campaign challenge, and the State House noticed pitched fights over casinos and Keno and slot machines. That all appears form of quaint right this moment. New Hampshire has totally embraced playing, with a proliferation of recent choices, together with sports activities betting, more and more costly scratch tickets, and a dozen casinos statewide — with extra within the works.

Meanwhile, gaming receipts account for a bigger share of state authorities revenues than ever earlier than. But that embrace has include a price — and a few danger. Gambling revenues may be much less predictable than another sources of state cash. And because the variety of wagering choices has risen, so has the variety of individuals looking for assist for playing dependancy.

Still, state lawmakers present little inclination to gradual the pattern in the direction of extra playing, in additional locations, anytime quickly.

“We’ve certainly grown,” stated McIntyre. “Whether we desired it was not really a discussion. It was: ‘You’re doing it.’ ”

Coming up aces

Two adjustments lately are fueling playing’s development in New Hampshire.

The first is regulatory: New Hampshire lawmakers have authorised a spread of expansions — similar to slot-style digital gaming machines — and elevated the hours casinos can function. The cap on how a lot a gambler can wager per hand on blackjack and different video games of probability have been eliminated.

There’s now round the clock on-line playing choices, and fuel stations promote $30 scratch tickets. Pubs throughout the state supply Keno.

But perhaps the larger change is cultural: Gambling, particularly sports activities playing, has exploded nationally. Sports leagues have embraced it, sports activities TV chyrons now carry odds, and a few followers maintain one eye on the sport and the opposite on their Draft Kings app.

Every gambler who locations a wager on the Celtics is aware of there’s an opportunity they might lose.

What they might not understand, although, is that these losses are a type of voluntary tax that advantages the state authorities.

“People opt into gambling,” says Phil Sletten with the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, a assume tank that research state income traits. “People decide to buy a lottery ticket or bet on a sports game. It’s different than a tax revenue source.”

But the features the state is making from lottery, casinos and sports activities wagering means a loss for gamblers. And these losses, for some individuals, may be devastating. In the previous 5 years, calls to the New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling’s helpline have greater than doubled, to greater than 570 calls in 2025.

Dr. Angela Bergen, who leads the non-profit helpline, says whereas the group doesn’t have long-term knowledge on the varieties of individuals looking for assist, newer callers look like skewing youthful and extra male. In the previous, there was the next share of individuals combating lottery or scratch ticket dependancy.

“But more recently it’s shifted to where most of our calls are coming in from folks who are looking for support from problem gambling behaviors at a physical casino or online via sports gambling platforms,” says Bergen.

The evolution of casinos in NH

Games of probability have been authorized in New Hampshire for many years, however they had been initially restricted to small-scale “Monte Carlo” nights in shabby operate halls. There had been tight restrictions on hours of operation and the varieties of video games accessible, together with strict betting limits. The Legislature’s lifting of a lot of these guidelines in 2006, plus the legalization of slot-style digital video games in newer years, has remodeled the sector. A flood of outdoor funding has created fashionable, inviting areas throughout the state.

The Lilac Club Casino in Rochester is considered one of them.

Even at 11 a.m. on a latest weekday, there’s a gentle stream of motion on the Lilac Club. Eric Barbaro, the power’s chief working officer, geese into the one quiet area he can discover: the poker site, which hadn’t launched any video games but.

The membership has 230 digital video games — image very high-tech slot machines — plus old-school roulette and craps. There’s additionally a bingo room, a totally walled off smoking part, and a large bar for watching a recreation.

The entire place feels fashionable and well-designed, proper right down to the restrooms.

“You’ll find you don’t have to be a great gamer to have a great food and beverage experience,” says Barbaro. “And if you’re a great gamer, you’re going to love the product that we’ve put out on the floor for you.”

The possession group of Lilac Club — Granite State Gaming & Hospitality — additionally manages a on line casino in Hampton, and just lately introduced its plans to open a 3rd location in Littleton. 

“The company is experiencing some great growth,” Barbaro says.

That generally is a enhance for the native financial system in a spot like Rochester, nevertheless it’s additionally a win for native non-profits: New Hampshire regulation requires these services to separate their proceeds with a rotating group of native charities. In the previous 18 months, Lilac Club Casino has awarded round $4 million to non-profits, based on Barbaro.

(NHPR has obtained gaming proceeds from a unique on line casino.)

Still, for all the expansion in playing income, there are dangers. Phil Sletten, with the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, says whereas the state treasury has actually benefited from the rise in gaming proceeds, it could additionally paper over shortfalls in different key income sources — like state liquor gross sales — which have been slumping lately.

The present increase instances might look like straightforward cash for everybody with a stake within the motion, however Charlie McIntyre, the lottery’s govt director, is aware of that luck can flip rapidly.

The latest surge to $5-per-gallon fuel, as an illustration, will harm lotto and scratch gross sales, as a result of fewer individuals will cease at fuel stations, he says.

And then there are the opposite massive, unpredictable swings. A single sporting occasion could make or break a month-to-month funds.

“The first year we had sports betting, Tom Brady was in the Super Bowl with the Buccaneers,” says McIntyre. “And they covered [the spread] and won. And we got killed. We literally lost, as a state, $3 million.”

McIntyre should still carry a few of these scars from 2021, however the New Hampshire Lottery, total, has made it up since then.

Remember: The home all the time wins.