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Publisher's Note: A reckoning with reality
By Jody Reese
A reckoning is coming for New Hampshire. Gov. John Lynch is considering legalizing widespread gambling if it doesn’t affect our quality of life. I understand the governor’s concern. What would casinos, slot machines, poker rooms and other dens of gambling do to our tranquil, rural state?
They are already here, and the world hasn’t ended. This week’s Hippo cover story looks at the growth of charity gaming in New Hampshire. Led primarily by New Hampshire Lottery Commission scratch tickets, but including poker and dog and horse race gambling at the race tracks, this state already offers a wide variety of betting opportunities.
Massachusetts and Maine are both looking at building casinos or adding slot machines to offset all the money that leaves their states and goes to New England casinos Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. According to our story almost $1 billion leaves Massachusetts each year for those casinos. Numbers are not available on how much leaves New Hampshire for those casinos.
If Maine and Massachusetts open up massive gambling operations, then New Hampshire might have little choice but to join the group or risk losing millions in lottery, race track and charity revenue.
Whatever opponents say about these charity gaming facilities (these include places that offer poker, black jack and roulette), they contribute millions of dollars to local charities. What will these charities do if this source of income is eliminated?
A lot of this anti-gambling hand-wringing is more show than reality. New Hampshire already offers $30 scratch tickets. Scratch tickets with face values over $10 already comprise 40 percent of the state’s lottery revenue. These scratch tickets are offered at almost every convenience store in the state. That’s thousands of gaming joints all over the state. I think we can all agree these scratch tickets don’t hurt our quality of life.
However, it’s true that casinos are different from state lottery programs that offer scratch tickets. Casinos evoke a more negative image of gambling addicts spending their last dime on the slots or the roulette table. Studies have shown that crime does rise around casinos and that gambling addicts tend to congregate around casinos. This can’t be sugarcoated. Nor should we enter into some state-sponsored gaming without knowing all the negatives.
I’d personally prefer that people didn’t gamble with their last dime or that people wouldn’t drink themselves into homelessness. But it’s going to happen regardless of my feelings. And, sure, just because you can’t stop it doesn’t mean you have to support it. But I think adults should be able to make their own decision about their future, even really bad ones. What is the alternative?
Gambling already provides a steady stream of income for our state government and local charities. Increasing legalized gambling in New Hampshire seems the only reasonable way to deal with Maine and Massachusetts.
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