This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
State leaders didn’t anticipate its casino industry to grow this rapidly when New Hampshire first allowed private companies to operate full-scale gaming venues a decade ago.
The 13 operating casinos are generating substantial revenue for both the state and nonprofits, but that financial gain has also come with a problem: gambling addiction.
In response, the New Hampshire Council for Responsible Gaming was launched on Friday, aiming to reduce the harms of problem gambling and encourage responsible betting.
“When you have gaming and an expansion of gaming at this level, you would invite problems, and the problems are addiction,” said Lou D’Allesandro, former state senator and board member of the council. “You’ve got to have something in place to deal with this, and the Council for Responsible Gambling is going to create that.”
In recent years, New Hampshire’s gaming landscape has changed dramatically, starting from small-scale bingo nights and evolving into a broader industry that now includes slot machines and a rapidly expanding sports betting market. Wager limits on table games were eliminated last year.
With the expansion, financial returns for the state have been significant.
Since sports betting launched in New Hampshire in 2019, it has generated more than $153 million in revenue for education, according to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission.
In the most recent fiscal year alone, sports wagering contributed about $39 million to the state’s coffers, with most of the bets being placed for the Super Bowl and March Madness.
State Sen. Tim Lang, who has worked on multiple gaming bills, said the council’s launch reflects a growing recognition that the state needs to address the consequences of its rapidly expanding casino industry.
“We are behind 8 ball on this topic, and we’re trying to play catch-up,” he said.
During last year’s legislative session, lawmakers made some progress in addressing problem gambling by creating a voluntary statewide self-exclusion program.
Under the new system, anyone who places their name on the exclusion list at one casino is automatically barred from all others in the state.
Prior to that change, residents had to visit each casino individually to request exclusion, with no unified registry in place.
Council board member Jim Rafferty outlined an initiative he hopes to advance through the group’s work: encouraging primary care physicians to include a question about gambling addiction as part of their standard patient intake process.
“There are problems. We’re going to step up to them,” he said. “We’re going to do and be effective in trying to combat gambling addiction problems.”
