{"id":48715,"date":"2017-04-19T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T19:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=48715"},"modified":"2017-04-19T12:43:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T19:43:22","slug":"new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/","title":{"rendered":"New Hampshire Casino Bill Pecked to Bits in the House"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Hampshire\u2019s casino bill faced a grilling Tuesday in the State House, which has always proved a graveyard of casino bills<\/a> past. And there have been a few.<\/p>\n

\"D\u2019Allesandro
Granite Determination: Legalizing casinos in New Hampshire is a no-brainer for Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro. If only the State House shared a similar point of view. (Image: Associated Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s (D-Manchester) 19th attempt to legalize casino gaming in the state, and each successive bill\u2019s annual defeat in the House has become something of a New Hampshire tradition, a bit like Rochester Fair but less fun.<\/p>\n

Still, the good senator is nothing if not dogged, and D\u2019Allesandro believes, just as he has each year, almost for the previous two decades, that this is the year to get the business done.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bad Start<\/b><\/h2>\n

Things did not begin auspiciously for the bill\u2019s hearing at a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee, as evidenced by the presence of the Casino Free New Hampshire group hosting a pre-hearing anti-gambling news conference in the lobby. We suspect, incidentally, that this is how the term \u201clobbyist\u201d originated.<\/p>\n

From there it was mainly downhill.<\/p>\n

\u201cDebating another casino bill is nothing but a waste of time,\u201d declared Patricia Lovejoy (D-Stratham), a member of the House Finance Committee and clearly not a fan of D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe numbers that have been presented are really pie-in-the-sky numbers,\u201d she claimed, citing the emergence casinos in neighboring Maine and Massachusetts as reasons why the proposed venues in New Hampshire could not realize their projections.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Flogging a Dead Horse Track<\/b><\/h2>\n

She also questioned why D\u2019Alessandro<\/a> was still plowing this particular furrow when the Rockingham Park thoroughbred racetrack in Salem had now closed.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s 19-year devotion to the legalization casino gaming has largely been a crusade to save the historic racetrack, which closed this year after 100 years in business, and is destined to be redeveloped into a mixed-use retail property.<\/p>\n

\u201cRockingham is sold, it\u2019s a done deal,\u201d said Republican Representative Gary Azarian of Salem. \u201cThis ship has sailed in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But D\u2019Allesandro believes that economic pressure from surrounding states makes it all the more important that the Granite State legalizes casinos.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile New Hampshire has done nothing, surrounding states now have gaming entities,\u201d he said recently. \u201cThey advertise on our TV stations and we send buses of New Hampshire residents to those other states to gamble. It\u2019s time for New Hampshire to do something. No state that has done this has crumbled.\u201d<\/p>\n

House of Death<\/b><\/h2>\n

While the D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s bill, which proposes creating licenses for two casinos in New Hampshire, cleared the Senate by a 13 to ten vote, it has once again fallen on deaf ears in the House.<\/p>\n

A procession of officials speaking against the bill included tourism industry leaders and Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein. Collectively, they argued that the issue of had been endlessly debated in the past and the argument for legalization was now shakier than it had ever been.<\/p>\n

No date has been set for a vote on the House floor, and it doesn\u2019t look good, but don\u2019t expect the indefatigable D\u2019Allesandro to give up, just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Hampshire\u2019s casino bill faced a grilling Tuesday in the State House, which has always proved a graveyard of casino bills past. And there have been a few. This is Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s (D-Manchester) 19th attempt to legalize casino gaming in the state, and each successive bill\u2019s annual defeat in the House has become something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":48716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,13,18,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Hampshire Casino Bill Pecked to Bits in the House<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New Hampshire Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro is hoping 19th time is the charm for his casino bill.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Hampshire Casino Bill Pecked to Bits in the House\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Hampshire Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro is hoping 19th time is the charm for his casino bill.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-19T19:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-19T19:43:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20140419_483499.xml-DeathPenaltyRepeal.JPEG-0a2a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"999\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"889\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/\",\"name\":\"New Hampshire Casino Bill Pecked to Bits in the House\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20140419_483499.xml-DeathPenaltyRepeal.JPEG-0a2a.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-19T19:00:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-19T19:43:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"New Hampshire Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro is hoping 19th time is the charm for his casino bill.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-hampshire-casino-bill-pecked-bits-house\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20140419_483499.xml-DeathPenaltyRepeal.JPEG-0a2a.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20140419_483499.xml-DeathPenaltyRepeal.JPEG-0a2a.jpg\",\"width\":999,\"height\":889,\"caption\":\"Granite Determination: Legalizing casinos in New Hampshire is a no-brainer for Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro. 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