It\u2019s not as though D\u2019Allesandro has never smelled the sweet scent of glory in his nostrils. In 2014, he came as close as possible to legalizing casino gaming without actually doing it. Having passed in the Senate, that year\u2019s bill was finished off in the House by just one, final vote, cast by Deputy Speaker Naida Kaen.<\/p>\n
Kaen\u2019s vote tied the scores at 172-172, which meant the legislation did not pass.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Allesandro is still smarting from the experience and noted ruefully that, since he came up with plausible casino legislation all those years ago, surrounding stares have all pinched his ideas and are now reaping the benefits.<\/p>\n
Since we made that suggestion those many years ago, Massachusetts has accepted it, Maine has accepted it, Connecticut has accepted it, and Rhode Island,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cThe only people that didn’t listen to me were Vermont, and we\u2019re no Vermont,\u201d he added haughtily.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nBillion Dollar Failure?<\/strong><\/h2>\nD\u2019Allesandro said he believed the state could collect between $100 million and $150 million each year from casino taxes and that it has missed out on around $1 billion in revenues for failing to act over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
His biggest supporter during the Senate debate, Senator Harold French (R-Franklin), said the state had a problem in that, for 20 years, despite having the opportunity to pass a \u201cgreat bill,\u201d he had been visiting Foxwoods in Connecticut to lose his money.<\/p>\n
“We really do have an opportunity here to pass this,” he said. “I believe that the good senator is not bluffing when he’s holding his cards and saying this will be the last time he will put it in,\u201d although his insistence on peppering his speech liberally with corny gambling metaphors suggests even he wasn\u2019t taking the proceedings entirely seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
God loves a trier, they say, but after two decades of trying to legalize casino gaming in New Hampshire, even the dogged Senator Lou D\u2019Allesandro (D-Manchester) believes it might be time to call it a day. D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s 20th consecutive casino bill was defeated in the Senate by an 11 to 10 vote last week. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":73748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,13,18,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
New Hampshire Sen. Lou D\u2019Allesandro to Quit After 20th Failed Casino Bill<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n