New Hampshire Charities Protests Slot Machine Installation at Racing Parks

Some New Hampshire non-profit organizations protested a Senate budget proposal for expanded gaming on June 16th, 2009. They said that their non-profit games will be severely affected by the video slot machines. But gaming supporters said that video slots will not affect non-profit organizations.

The Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gaming stated that a proposal to permit 13,000 video slot machines at four gaming facilities in New Hampshire will threaten the charities' ability to earn their own non-profit gambling revenues.

The group, which includes representatives from charities like the Dover Rotary Club to the Senior Olympics, states that if players have a choice between winning $50 at a bingo game or much bigger winnings from slot machines, the slots will win. But gaming supporters say that is not the case.

Millenium Gaming is a Las Vegas organization that wants to install 5,000 slot machines at Salem's Rockingham Park. Millenium spokesman Rich Killion said that thirty-six charities, like the Child Advocacy Center and the Salem Historical Society, offered games at Rockingham Park last year.

Killion said that lat year; the charities received a total of $1.8 million. Killion said that Rockingham will permit charities to offer casino tables like the game of poker at the park.

Monday, 03 August 2009
Kori Woffendin