New Hampshire: Online Casino Gambling Bill Clears Committee

Here in the early part of 2025, several states are taking a look at online casino gambling legislation. This has been an ongoing process for years in states like Indiana and Illinois. Now comes news that the state of New Hampshire is looking at said legislation itself.

This news comes a bit out of the blue as not much prior online gambling attention has been spent on the "granite state." All of that changed this week with the announcement that a bill to legalize iGaming (online casino gaming) has made it through one key state Senate committee. Indeed, SB 168 successfully cleared the House's Ways and Means committee.

It's worth noting that one important amendment to the original version of HB 168 was required to get out of committee. The amendment involved the distribution of the state's tax revenue. The new amendment calls for charities connected with iGaming licensees would get a small cut of the revenue. According to bill sponsor Sen. Tim Lang, it was never his intention to leave said charities out of the mix.

The Details of SB 168

The updated version of this iGaming bill calls for a tax rate of 45% to be charged on all gross online casino gambling revenue. The bill calls for those funds to be split 65%-35% with participating charities getting the 35%. The other 65% would go to the state to be divided as follows:

• 50% going into a general fund for discretionary spending TBD


• 25% to an established elderly, disabled, blind, and deaf exemption reimbursement fund


• 25% going into a special fund to be identified at a later date

What to Expect From Here

At this point, SB 168 is awaiting further consideration from a yet-to-be-determined House committee. Should be get passed through another committee, it could then make its way to the Seate floor.

Before Lang made his amendment, there was seemingly little chance the bill would go further. At issue was the fact that many key charities rely on revenue received from the state's retail casino operations. If online casinos were to extract some of the revenue generated by retail casinos, that would hurt charity revenue. By including charities in a cut of iGaming operations, it makes the bill more palpable to lawmakers who feel obligated to watch out for the interest of charities.

As SB 168 progresses, it will have other issues that need to be addressed. At the top of that list was a study performed by Spectrum Gaming Group in 2024. The study came back with a recommendation that New Hampshire hold off on any further attempts to expand gaming within the state's boundaries until 2031. That's the year when a current moratorium on the issuance of new retail casino licenses expires.

At this point, it's hard to guess in which direction the state is headed on the iGaming issue. The good news is a crucial first hurdle has been successfully cleared.