Gambling in NH -- why not Winnipesaukee?

[This'nThat]

I see that the state is on its way to allowing gambling in the state. "To raise revenue", they say. They've also listed 6 specific sites -- but Winnipesaukee is not on that list.

I'm going to avoid the question of "should gambling be allowed". Instead, if it's coming, what would it mean to the lake region if a site was near the lake? Where should it be located? And if not a site -- what about converting the Mt. Washington into a gamling queen? Think that would increase ridership?

Might be worth thinking about, just in case.....

[Lakesrider]

Not enough people with money, year round to sustain a casino. We simply don't have the population with money to throw away up here. Just those rich folks in
Nashua and Manchester. (NH residents that work in MA!)

[This'nThat]

Originally Posted by Lakesrider

Not enough people with money, year round to sustain a casino. We simply don't have the population with money to throw away up here. Just those rich folks in
Nashua and Manchester. (NH residents that work in MA!)

But,,,, two of the six proposed sites are in North country! Who has less money -- Winnipesaukee people, or the folks in Coos county?

[BroadHopper]

who owns NH Motorspeedway expresses interest in building a casino next to the racetrack.

[NoRegrets]

The race track is only 16 miles from Laconia. I think this locatioin is no different than winni except it is not water front.

[Irish mist]

I would like to see one Foxwoods-style resort in Salem at the Rock. That would bring up the Mass folks who have the money & are less than 30 minutes from the border. I don't want to see slots spread all over the state.

[Sal]

The place to put a casino (or casinos) is (or was) at the Massachusetts border, like the Rockingham Park site.
If it's a real "Las Vegas Strip" style casino, like Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods. most of the Boston gamblers would rather drive north 35 miles, instead of southwest 100 miles, to do their thing.
If one visits the Connecticut casinos, one would notice many MA license plates in the parking lots and only a few NH plates. I suppose that speaks well for the NH ethic, but poorly for mid to northern NH casino anticipated revenues.
Problem now is that MA might beat NH to the "prize". They (we?) are also considering setting up casino gambling.
If everyone does it, the "chowda" is going to become "broth".

[Lucky1]

What are the sites that they list? Does anyone know if they will have table games like roulette and others or if they are talking slot machines only. What states are being considered? It seems that so many stores have the lottery that people are already gambling in most if not all states now.

[Argie's Wife]

Senate Bill 489, which passed by a 14-10 vote last night, would legalize slot machines at six locations: the Rockingham Park race track, a new resort casino at Green Meadows golf course in Hudson, dog tracks in Seabrook and Belmont, and one casino each in Grafton and in Coos counties.

Source: Union Leader (3/25/10), Lynch: Bill goes too far expanding legal gambling

Sorry but what about Pease Tradeport? Good grief - if there's anywhere in the state that would be good for a resort, I'd think Pease would be excellent - retail, restaurants, night life - Portsmouth has a lot going on... Pease would get a new life and there would be more jobs.

[dpg]

Build a casino and the people will come. You don't have to have it in peoples back yard. The wife and I think nothing of driving to Foxwoods 1-1/2hour drive just to kill an afternoon.

[lawn psycho]

I have no data to back it up but I don't think a casino would do well in the North Country or Lakes Region. Seasonal maybe, but year round I think would be bust.

I think a casino near the Kittery Outlets may work as people would shop and then throw some money at the casino.

For the record, I could care less is someone wants to spend money. Having formal probability and statistics training pretty much ruins any chance for me to gamble. Been to Las Vegas and I spent $20 in the casinos over four days. I'm the free-loader type whom they probably want to kick out of the place

[Lucky1]

I thought they were talking about a regular casino. If it is just slot machines then I do not know if there is enough money at the lake off season. Maybe a place like Nashua but it would not appeal to me anyway.

I am puzzled that so many people spend money all year on all kinds of lottery games. Those tickets are in supermarkets and convenience stores etc all around our lake. If the state gets revenue from the lottery games then the towns around our lake benefit from the lottery I would think.

[John A. Birdsall]

with the new motors on the mount, they should put slot machines on it. Just think of the revenue that they would make. The state operates the slot, the mount just moves about the lake. The Mount would have full cruises, and the state could rig the slots and we could do away with property tax.

[phoenix]

maybe we could claim that when we are in the broads we are in international waters and get duty free shopping

[AC2717]

Why do you think Fun Spot is now set up the way it is, they are just waiting for a gambling bill to be passed! I would love it, I think it would increase the value of our properties up there, while possibly giving us some property tax relief

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by dpg

Build a casino and the people will come. You don't have to have it in peoples back yard. The wife and I think nothing of driving to Foxwoods 1-1/2hour drive just to kill an afternoon.

I agree. Think of how many NH residents travel to CT to gamble. Some even weekly. We would attract residents from NH, Maine, Vermont, and some from Mass as well as seasonal tourists. How many people visit North Conway in the fall and winter? How many visit the seacoast in the summer?

Put it in the middle of nowhere and businesses will pop up around it to support. Hell with it, let it take some of the burden off the state funding. People are still going to gamble whether they do it here or in CT.

[WakeboardMom]

Originally Posted by Argie's Wife

Senate Bill 489, which passed by a 14-10 vote last night, would legalize slot machines at six locations: the Rockingham Park race track, a new resort casino at Green Meadows golf course in Hudson, dog tracks in Seabrook and Belmont, and one casino each in Grafton and in Coos counties.

Source: Union Leader (3/25/10), Lynch: Bill goes too far expanding legal gambling

Sorry but what about Pease Tradeport? Good grief - if there's anywhere in the state that would be good for a resort, I'd think Pease would be excellent - retail, restaurants, night life - Portsmouth has a lot going on... Pease would get a new life and there would be more jobs.

They're starting with places on the three major thoroughfares coming into the state from the south. The 95 designee will be Seabrook because it's already established, and that's the reasoning behing Rockingham on 93 as well. The route 3 facility will be in Hudson and it will be a start-from-scratch Foxwoods-type facility.

"North Country" will probably be something like Town and Country in Gorham or the Mt. Washington Hotel in Twin Mountain...places that are already established with restaurants/lounges and an established customer base.

[Argie's Wife]

Originally Posted by WakeboardMom

...places that are already established with restaurants/lounges and an established customer base.

Yeah, Seabrook I can understand...

However, when it comes to well-established places, like you mentioned, Pease Tradeport has that already. I used to work for Liberty Mutual in Portsmouth and there are some excellent restaurants in that area - not 'hole in the wall' type places, but well established, 'posh' places. Very nice hotels, etc. - probably Seabrook has more of that... so I get it.

Although jobs are needed everywhere, I can't see Twin as a good choice as it's the town your drive through as you're headed somewhere else. I've spent some time there as my sister and her husband used to own The Patio in Twin. There's not a lot there... a few old motor courts, campgrounds, and a Quiznos, if I remember correctly...

[fatlazyless]

When they talk about gambling, it's not like they are talking about twenty-one, or poker; it's all about video slot machines with sound, graphics and near-wins designed to keep the customer gambling and gambling. While table games like poker and 21 can be challenging, just the repeated playing of video slots definately seems to be a loser's game. You play....you lose....you play some more....you lose some more? NH already has scratch tickets so why add another way for people to be losers?

People will be driv'n old worn out cars with loose ball joints and worn out tires because they lost their two hundred dollars, car repair money, play'n the slots. When they lose their money, what's they gonna do next to make some more.....where they gonna go?

[trfour]

Citizen article; http://citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...879/-1/CITIZEN



Terry
__________________________________

[aquadocton]

If casino/slot gambling is approved, every elected official will be lined up with their hand out looking for money to fund their special programs to keep their voters happy and to keep themselves in office. Within a short few years we will have a deficit again because history has proven that our friends in office will always spend more money than they have.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

"...it's all about video slot machines with sound, graphics and near-wins designed to keep the customer gambling and gambling...just the repeated playing of video slots definitely seems to be a loser's game. You play....you lose....you play some more....you lose some more? NH already has scratch tickets so why add another way for people to be losers...?"

1) Ahead of me in line in the Carolinas somewhere, I watched a young—and barefoot—mother as she played a $1 scratch-off ticket at a convenience store. She quietly won $7, and I was happy for her: then she immediately bought seven more tickets and lost every one.

When I related this to a neighbor (who's a federal-prison psychologist), he said "In Psychology, gambling is known as a Variable Re-enforcement Schedule". (If you lost every time you gambled, you'd soon give it up, but winning every-so-often just fuels a natural addiction).

This psychological phenomenon has even been noted in studies among rats. Electric shock or cheese, the rewards—and the penalties—are taken in stride.



2) I've found that giving a $1 lottery ticket as a gift can really pick up that person's spirits for the rest of the week; however, it can also precipitate a latent gambling addiction.

3) Just into my teen years, I played the 5¢ "one-armed-bandit" at the Christmas Farm Inn in Jackson, NH. At such an early age—and having to beg every nickle—I was quickly shown gambling's futility.

BTW: New Hampshire was "First in the Nation" with a State Lottery. (Which didn't slow government-hirings, did it?)

Originally Posted by phoenix

maybe we could claim that when we are in the broads we are in international waters and get duty free shopping

As gambling sites, the lake could support another M/S Mt. Washington—or even two—still, there's just something very wrong with that picture.

IMHO

[old coot]

Years ago, Freddie Faretra later of Faretra’s Music & Vending in Concord, operated slot machines on the original SS Mount Washington. While Freddie’s long gone and so too is the old sidewheeler, I’m sure there’s a vendor somewhere who’d set them up aboard the MV Mount Washington. That would liven up the lake!

[Shore Driver]

Originally Posted by codeman671

I agree. Think of how many NH residents travel to CT to gamble. Some even weekly. We would attract residents from NH, Maine, Vermont, and some from Mass as well as seasonal tourists. How many people visit North Conway in the fall and winter? How many visit the seacoast in the summer?

Put it in the middle of nowhere and businesses will pop up around it to support. Hell with it, let it take some of the burden off the state funding. People are still going to gamble whether they do it here or in CT.

As a CT resident, I can assure you that businesses do NOT "pop up" around casinos. Montville and Ledyard sport the exact same run-down look that they did 20 years ago, except with big busy highways going through them. If NH wants to siphon off gambling revenue from CT and soon-to-be-Mass, great idea, so long as no one harbors any delusions that they can build some gaudy mecca in Berlin and suddenly turn it into Vegas.

[rrr]

Shore Driver-

We keep hearing about the revenue casinos will generate for the state - but I recall someone from NJ telling us that their taxes have only gone up since the casinos came to Atlantic City.

Without getting too personal, would you tell us what effect Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have had on your taxes?

thanks

[Shore Driver]

rrr -

CT taxes of all kinds have gone up or stayed static during the 20 years since the casinos went up. I do not own a business but that is where CT's taxes truly crush people's souls. No taxes that I know of have gone down in my adult life. We are the 2nd-most taxed state in the union, topped only by our fellow paradise, Hawaii.

Please note, it is largely blue states now pushing casinos as a source of revenue, mostly to offset huge pension and personnel costs for their massive, elite class of state workers.

Cheers!

[TOAD]

Originally Posted by Shore Driver

rrr -

CT taxes of all kinds have gone up or stayed static during the 20 years since the casinos went up. I do not own a business but that is where CT's taxes truly crush people's souls. No taxes that I know of have gone down in my adult life. We are the 2nd-most taxed state in the union, topped only by our fellow paradise, Hawaii.

Please note, it is largely blue states now pushing casinos as a source of revenue, mostly to offset huge pension and personnel costs for their massive, elite class of state workers.

Cheers!

I agree that that the public sector unfunded pension problem will be the next huge financial crisis! Hell every entitlement program the government at all levels has gotten us into is in financial trouble!

Casinos in any state will never lower the taxes. The proceeds from casinos will only serve to slow the rate of growth of the tax burden on the private sector.