- NH’s Senate approves sports betting bill
- The House needs to revise the bill one last time before sending it to the governor’s office
- Governor Chris Sununu has already included sports betting in his budget
New Hampshire Senate convened on Thursday, May 30 and pushed a sports betting bill with a strong bilateral support once again, after H 480 was returned to the Senate for re-examination, and after gaining the approval of the Senate Finance Committee first.
NH Sports Betting To-and-Fro All for the Best
New Hampshire has been in the process of pushing ahead with a sports betting bill, H 480, that now needs to get an approval from the House to be delivered to the governor’s office in June and establish a basic framework for legal sports betting in the country.
H 480, authored by Rep. Timothy Lang, has been stuck in Senate for a while now. On May 23, the Senate voted and approved the bill in the Finance Committee where the bill was subjected to several amendments, which were rapidly passed by Senators, facing no opposition.
The rather slow passage of the bill was mostly occasioned by changes in the federal law known as Wire Act which now threatens to home in on states that intend to support any form of online wagering – gambling, lottery or sports. The amendments specifically addressed:
- The removal of a proviso limiting the number of partners of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission to one;
- The limit of mobile operators, setting it to five;
- Examining the possible threats of the Wire Act and establishing that any form of mobile sports betting that is conducted online must take place within the state borders;
- Introducing daily/weekly/monthly wagering limits for individual customers enforced by the Lottery Commission
With these changes, H 480 is ready to re-appear in the House where it will have to garner the support of the lawmakers who helped launch it in the first place.
What to Expect from NH Sports Betting?
New Hampshire’s sports betting bill is very liberal. Unlike other states, players can register for mobile betting remotely. The bill also includes live betting options done through the mobile app, which will give players even more autonomy.
However, the bill addresses betting on collegiate contests of any form. The Lottery Commission will also create a separate regulatory body, the Division of Sports Wagering, which will seek to enforce the regulations as mandated by the would-be law.
New Hampshire operators won’t have to foot an integrity fee for the use of official leagues data, which has long been one of the most hotly debated issues across the country, but it has now mostly been put behind.
The bill is very unlikely to meet further opposition either. For example, NH Governor Chris Sununu has already approved a budget featuring $10 million from sports wagering.
The U.S. Governors Are on the Move
Sununu is not the only governor who looks favorably on gaming. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has decided to file his own sports betting bill and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has asked of lawmakers to address sports betting and consider a bill.
New York’s Andrew Cuomo has been a long-time opponent of sports betting, on a moral principle, but not so much as to slap a unanimous lawmakers’ decision. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has also seen spots betting.
Colorado has also made a move on sports betting this week, concluding a very good half-year for the state of U.S. sports betting.