State officials in New Hampshire are prepping a bill that would expand gambling in the state.
The plan was defeated earlier this year, but some officials have been working to rework the proposal and resubmit it to lawmakers before the end of the year.
“It is disappointing to see the House of Representatives break from the New Hampshire tradition of open and thorough debate,” the governor said in statement in May after the plan had hit the muck. “Without passing SB 152, the path will be more difficult, but the people of New Hampshire expect us to do difficult things.”
According to the Associated Press, a panel will meet Dec. 6 to review the changes to the idea and then turn in the draft bill to lawmakers by Dec. 15.
One of the new changes would call for allowing up to 5,000 slot machines at a New Hampshire casino. A figure of 150 table games had been thrown around before.
Any new legislation would likely call for just a single Las Vegas-style gambling operation.
As alluded to, the idea has been strongly backed by the state’s governor.
Some in New Hampshire are worried about the state’s existing gambling being threatened by moves in neighboring states. Massachusetts, for example, is nearing the end of figuring out which three gaming groups will win licenses to build three full-scale casino-resorts there.
Right now, New Hampshire has charitable, pari-mutuel and lottery gambling.
Other states in the region with huge gambling expansion initiatives include Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and New Jersey, which just recently began offering games on the Internet.
