Gambling legislation in New Hampshire has almost succeeded in being approved by authorities during the time Governor Maggie Hassan was in charge of dealing with the state’s gambling affairs.
People with considerable knowledge on the matter remain hopeful that it will finally pass during the new session.
However, there is another side of the coin. It might be a pretty challenging task to make all 400 members of the House agree on how to evaluate their priorities and set aside sufficient funds for every issue they will have to deal with during the year.
As a matter of fact, the House has never passed a bill, concerning gambling activities. The current governor is a strong proponent of the gambling legislation, which makes the chances for such a bill to pass pretty high.
Last year, the representatives rejected a bill legislation for establishing two casinos within the state.
Now, it seems like the gambling legislation is back on the agenda as Sen. Lou D’Allesandro is about to propose a similar bill. He is among the proponents of the gambling expansion and he regards it as an excellent opportunity for creating new career opportunities and contributing to state coffers as well.
Needless to say, his beliefs were disapproved by the opponents of the gambling legislation since it is considered to be an unstable method for boosting the state economy. In addition, it is believed to have a negative effect on the communities as well.
Ten members of the Ways and Means Committee are going to review the gambling legislation proposals. The outcome is really interesting since there are opponents and proponents of the gambling legislation among the members.
The neighboring state, Massachusetts, is about to have its casino industry expanded which makes the need for New Hampshire to establish its own casino urgent.
However, the opponents think that the casino would not be able to fight the tough competition. They supported their standpoint with the fact that casinos in New Jersey are closing and those in Connecticut are reporting weak revenues so basically there is no point in opening another one.
Of course, there will be heated debates concerning the way the revenues generated can be spent. While the Democrats are more likely to improve the services and the education system, the House Republicans would have no hesitation supporting the business and providing them with a tax relief.
For the time being, the governor has not revealed if she was going to include the casino revenue in the budget proposal. It remains uncertain if she is going to approve the gambling legislation as well.
