keno

The Town Meeting numbers are in: the electronic gambling game Keno is coming to at least 18 more towns this year, bumping the total of New Hampshire towns and cities allowing the game to 84.

Two more towns - Conway and Merrimack - will decide on Keno during local elections in April.

The state approved the game in 2017, but left it up to voters to decide whether to allow the game in their local bars and restaurants.

For the second year in a row, Lebanon City Council has voted against putting the electronic gambling game Keno in front of voters.

After a lengthy debate on Wednesday night, the City Council voted 5-4 against a proposal from the American Legion to put Keno on the ballot.

Lebanon would have joined over 20 New Hampshire towns deciding next month whether to allow Keno at local bars and restaurants.

New Hampshire is sending about $11 million to full-day kindergarten programs this year.

The money is the result of SB 191. The law, passed last year, mandates that the state help cover costs of full-day kindergarten, covering at least $1,100 - or 7 percent - of per pupil costs.

This year, a record number of schools in New Hampshire are offering full-day kindergarten. At least six districts spent the summer hiring additional staff and amending facilities to boost their half-day kindergarten programs to full-day programs.

That puts the number of districts in the state offering full-day kindergarten to over 90%.

The electronic gambling game Keno was approved by roughly three-quarters of the towns that voted on it last week.

The state Lottery Commission says 55 out of 71 towns approved Keno on Town Meeting day.

State lawmakers legalized the game last year as a way to raise money for full-day kindergarten, but left it up to individual communities to decide whether to allow it.

Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the state Lottery, says he’s pleased by the number of towns that approved Keno.

All thirteen of New Hampshire’s cities now offer full-day kindergarten. On Monday night, Concord became the final city to join the list.

The Concord school board has been debating full-day kindergarten for years. The election of new board members, along with new funding from the state, finally tipped the scales.

Board member Chuck Crush says he’s excited for what a full-day program will mean for kids and for economic development in the city.

Seven cities approved Keno gambling last November and 77 towns will put the question to voters at town meeting on Tuesday--and later this week, according to the N.H. Lottery, which oversees Keno 603. Thirty-six towns OK'd Keno on Tuesday, while nine rejected it. 

Click the dots on the map to see where KENO stands in New Hampshire towns:

Voters in more than 75 towns across the state will decide on Keno at town meetings this spring.

State lawmakers legalized the lottery game last year as a way to help fund all-day kindergarten statewide.

But it still has to be approved on a city-by-city or town-by-town basis.

In Enfield, where it’ll be up for a vote at the Town Meeting next month, selectman Meredith Smith says she hopes voters reject Keno and send a message to Concord. “Gambling is not a way to fix the funding of the schools,” she said.

Keno sales in New Hampshire have topped $1 million in just over a month.

Between pouring drinks and clearing the deck, the bartender at the American Legion post in Lebanon this week has an additional task in mind: political organizing. Behind the bar is an old-fashioned paper petition -- they're trying to get enough signatures to put the electronic gambling game Keno on the city ballot in March.

It’s been a tough go. The deadline for the petition is Wednesday, and on Monday afternoon, even the club manager said he’s not confident they’ll get the 420 names they need.

Lebanon became the second New Hampshire city Wednesday to categorically say no to Keno, without putting the issue in front of voters.

State lawmakers allowed cities and towns to authorize the gambling game last year as a way to raise money for all-day kindergarten statewide. Districts are eligible for the kindergarten funding, though, whether or not they approve the game.

More than 40 bars and restaurants across New Hampshire started offering the electronic bingo game Keno Friday. It was the first day the game became legal in the state.

  The electronic bingo game Keno can be officially played in New Hampshire, as of Friday.

Rochester officials will be hosting a recount next week on the passage of the electronic gambling game Keno.

Last week voters in the city approved Keno by just one vote.

Earlier this week a majority of cities in New Hampshire voted to allow the electronic gambling game Keno. But three communities rejected it.

And regardless of where in the state Keno is approved, under the new law now legalizing it, every school district will get the same share from Keno revenues to help pay for full-day kindergarten.

That’s left some people wondering how fair the new law really is.

Rochester appears to be the community most divided over whether to allow Keno within city limits – the game passed there by a mere one vote, according to results from the local clerk’s office as of late Tuesday night.

Otherwise, voters across New Hampshire were split on the issue of whether to allow Keno in their communities. Seven of the 10 cities where it was on the ballot voted in favor of permitting the game.

Map: What NH Towns Will Have KENO?

9:15 p.m. -- Democrat Joyce Craig has been elected mayor of Manchester, the first woman to ever win that office.

Craig defeated 4-term incumbent mayor Ted Gatsas by roughly 2,000 votes to claim the top spot in New Hampshire’s largest city.

Voters in cities across New Hampshire are heading to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots for  city leaders, candidates for school board and police commissioner, and for local election officials.

The electronic gambling game is up for a vote in 10 cities - including Manchester and Nashua. Franklin already had their election last month, and Keno overwhelmingly passed there.

New Hampshire Lottery Director Charlie McIntyre says Granite Staters currently spend about $25 million a year playing keno in Massachusetts.

That is one reason the state is upbeat about a new law that gives cities and towns the option to allow keno gambling. A projected $9 million in revenue will help fund full-day kindergarten.

Voters in eleven cities will weigh that ballot question this fall. But not everyone is so gung-ho about it.

The electronic bingo game Keno will be on Nashua’s ballot this fall.

The city’s board of aldermen voted unanimously without debate to do so Tuesday. A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10.

Manchester, Berlin, Laconia and Rochester will also have Keno on the ballot. So far Portsmouth is the only city yet to reject it.

Earlier this year the Governor legalized Keno, but each city and town will decide whether it’s played in its borders. Revenue generated from the games will go to fund full-day kindergarten programs statewide.

The cities of Rochester and Portsmouth made opposite moves on Keno Tuesday night.

The state’s new Keno law leaves it up to communities to decide whether to allow the electronic gambling game in their restaurants and bars.

In Portsmouth, city councilors voted 7-2 not to put Keno on the ballot this November.

Councilor Nancy Pearson was among the no votes.

“We had a handful of members of the restaurant community in the room tonight, and they walked out. Nobody wants this.”

Voters in a New Hampshire city will be able to determine whether the gambling game Keno should be played in restaurants and bars.

Manchester voters will consider whether Keno should be played within its city’s borders this Fall. The city’s aldermen voted late Tuesday night with little debate to put the question to residents on the city’s upcoming ballot.