Online Casino News Out of New Jersey and New Hampshire

There is lots of online casino news across the nation this week. Here are some tidbits from New Jersey and New Hampshire.

Proposed New Jersey Online Casino Tax in the Works

It's that time of the year when New Jersey's Congress and Gov. Phil Murphy are beginning work on next year's fiscal budget. Facing a potential budget shortfall, Gov. Murphy is looking for additional sources of tax revenue.

It's not surprising that the Governor is looking at the state's online gambling industry to help rebuild the state's coffers. After all, online gambling has been a great source of income for a lot of states, with millions of U.S. citizens enjoying the chance to play casino games and bet on sports from the comfort of home.

According to sources, he will be proposing an increase in the tax on gross online gambling revenue to 25%. Currently, online casino operators are paying 15%, while sports betting operators are paying 13%. This would bring New Jersey more in line with states like Illinois and Ohio, other states that have recently increased taxes on online gambling. This proposed increase in New Jersey could bring in up to $400 million in additional tax revenue.

Certainly, the state's online gambling operators are not pleased with this news, but it's not unexpected given the record amounts of online gambling revenue that have been generated in New Jersey over the past year.

New Hampshire Senate Could Pass iGaming Bill - House is Another Issue

According to New Hampshire Sen. Tim Lang, he fully expects the State Senate to pass his proposed iGaming bill. His confidence in the bill clearing the house is a bit lower, as he stated in an interview with PlayUSA:

“How it will do in the House is a toss-up.”

When a different bill was proposed in 2023, it didn't make it past the House's Ways and Means Committee, as members decided to let the bill die. This is a bit of optimism this year because former chair Rep. Laurie Sanborn has left office. Also, there are key components of this year's bill over the 2023 version that could satisfy prior concerns. According to Lang in a press release:

“The bill is significantly different than the previous term’s bill in that it’s now a tethered to brick and mortar model with revenues being treated the same as if the player was sitting in the charitable gaming facility, thus increasing revenues available to charities, which may change some House members’ votes. Time will tell.”

The previous term's bill to which he referred is HB 168.

The Senate is expected to vote on the new bill after testimony that is scheduled for March 6, 2025. Lang believes it will get passed in the Senate and move on to the House, where he doesn't have a sense of which direction things will go. He hopes that by removing language that would have adversely affected the revenue of key charities, the bill might be about to gather support in the House.