New Hampshire Senator Quits After 20 Casino Bill Attempts

New Hampshire senator, Lou D’Allesandro, who, for the past 20 years, has been trying hard to make casinos legal in the state, decided to give up. Last week, his 20th attempt to legalize casino gambling failed after being rejected by the Senate, narrowly being outvoted by an 11 to 10 voting outcome.

D’Allesandro came close to legalizing casinos in New Hampshire in 2014 when, even without his involvement, his bill ed in the Senate only to be killed off by the vote by House Deputy Speaker, Naida Kaen. The voting was actually tied, 172 to 172, but according to the laws of the state that meant the bill did not .

He commented: “Since we made that suggestion those many years ago, Massachusetts has accepted it, Maine has accepted it, Connecticut has accepted it, and Rhode Island. The only people that didn’t listen to me were Vermont, and we’re no Vermont.”

His insistence that New Hampshire should legalize casinos was founded on the estimate that the state could reap a reward somewhere between $100 and 150 million per year from gambling taxes. So far, he calculated, for failing to legalize casinos for the past 20 years, the state missed out in collecting $1 billion. Senator Harold French, who is D’Allesandro’s biggest er with this cause, agrees and adds: “We really do have an opportunity here to this. 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.”

It really does seem so; we’ll have to wait one more year to see if senator D’Allesandro will change his mind – but you can’t blame him for not trying. After 20 years, even the most enthusiastic of believers lose their faith.