New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed state’s sports betting legislation into law Friday authorizing the state lottery to offer sports betting in retail locations and online.
On March 24, the New Hampshire House approved legislation which would allow the state lottery commission authority to control sports betting in the state. It moved relatively quickly by the lengthy standards of most legislation after introduction in January, and was taken up by the Senate shortly after it passed the House.
After the Senate spent several weeks evaluating, and later passing, the bill, the two chambers quickly hammered out minor discrepancies between the two proposals and set it to Sununu’s desk. New Hampshire joins Rhode Island as New England states which feature legalized sports gambling.
New Hampshire joins the growing list of states to legalize sports betting since May 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the decades-long federal ban on the industry outside of Nevada.
The HB480 allows players in New Hampshire over the age of 18 to engage in sports betting at up to ten retail locations and via five mobile sportsbooks, with the sports betting operators to be selected to act as agents of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission through a competitive procurement process.
The bill signing was attended by New Hampshire Lottery executive director Charlie McIntyre, New Hampshire Lottery Commission chair Debra Douglas, and sponsors of House Bill 480.
“Sports betting is the right bet for New Hampshire,” said Governor Sununu. “With the exciting new addition of sports betting, the New Hampshire Lottery will continue to drive critical revenue, putting even more money into our educational system.
“Today’s action will provide financial support and important resources to help our public education system, which will benefit every child in every school across the state — a win for New Hampshire.”
The move into sports betting follows a record year for the New Hampshire Lottery with sales of $384.2m in the fiscal year 2019, an increase of 15.5 percent year-on-year, returning more than $100m to the state to fund education. Scratch tickets accounted for the bulk of lottery revenue in FY19 with sales of $249.9m.
The New Hampshire iLottery platform, which launched in September 2018, contributed sales of $6.4m to the total from a registered customer base of 47,000 players.
Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, commented: “I am pleased with our record-breaking sales success and especially that the New Hampshire Lottery has sustained its core mission in remaining an important force in raising education revenue for the state.
“Sports betting represents an exciting new chapter for the New Hampshire Lottery and our loyal players. The New Hampshire Lottery is well-positioned to strategically administer sports betting to maximize revenue and to protect our consumers,” he said.
