Slot machines, lifted bet limits, and 130,000-square-foot gaming floors have transformed charitable game rooms into a booming industry—and not everyone is celebrating.
By Granite State Report
Concord, NH – New Hampshire doesn’t have an income tax. It doesn’t have a sales tax. And until recently, it didn’t have anything most people would recognize as a casino. What it had were modest charitable gaming rooms—poker tables in strip malls, bingo halls next to gas stations—where nonprofits cycled through rotating schedules and wagering was capped at ten dollars a hand.
That world is gone. In its place, the Granite State has built something nobody quite expected: a casino industry now generating more than half a billion dollars a year in revenue, with state projections pointing toward a billion-dollar market within three years. The transformation happened fast, it happened mostly without a statewide debate, and it is reshaping the economic and social landscape of communities from Nashua to the North Country.
The Numbers Tell the Story
According to data from the New Hampshire Lottery and Gaming Commission, the state collected $60.2 million from charitable casinos in 2025—up more than 70 percent from $35.2 million the year before. Local charities and nonprofits that partner with gaming venues received $64 million in donations, compared with $39.3 million in 2024. Casino operators themselves took in $250 million from horse racing and games of chance, with video lottery games on pace to add another $75 million annually.
All told, casino betting in New Hampshire now generates roughly $500 million a year—and that figure doesn’t include lottery tickets, sports betting, or keno. A 2024 state-commissioned analysis by Spectrum Gaming Group projected that with current growth trends and four more casinos in development, New Hampshire’s gaming market could reach $1.1 billion within three years.
For a state with 1.3 million residents and a famously lean government, those are staggering numbers.
From Bingo Halls to Big Business
The seeds of New Hampshire’s casino industry were planted in 1998, when Manchester developer Dick Anagnost opened a bingo hall to raise money for charity. A 2006 law allowed for-profit companies to operate charitable gaming locations, with revenue split among operators, charities, and the state. For years, with low wager limits and tiny venues, the industry barely registered.
The acceleration began in 2023, when the legislature raised the per-bet limit from $10 to $50. Then came the 2025 state budget, which removed bet limits entirely and authorized slot machines at charitable casinos for the first time. The combination was rocket fuel. The Nash Casino opened at the former Sears location in Nashua’s Pheasant Lane Mall, spanning 130,000 square feet—so large that part of its parking lot technically sits in Massachusetts. The Revo Casino chain expanded to locations in Conway, Dover, Lebanon, Manchester, and Keene. The Lilac Club Casino launched in Rochester. Suddenly, New Hampshire had a genuine regional gaming industry, drawing players from across the border who might otherwise have driven to Encore Boston Harbor or MGM Springfield.
The “Charitable” Question
New Hampshire’s gaming model is unlike any other state’s. Commercial casinos remain illegal. Instead, every gaming venue operates under a charitable license, required by law to funnel 35 percent of net revenue to registered nonprofits. Another portion goes to the state’s Education Trust Fund. The system was designed to ensure that gambling serves the public good—and for many charities, the money has been transformative. Some organizations now receive six-figure annual donations from a single casino placement.
But critics argue the charitable label has become a polite fiction stretched over what is, by any practical measure, a commercial casino industry. The operators—not the charities—build the facilities, hire the staff, choose the games, and take home the largest share of the revenue. In 2025, operators kept $250 million while charities received $64 million. The state capped the number of gaming licenses at 18, effectively creating a limited franchise system where license holders control enormous and growing revenue streams.
The tension boiled over last fall when State Rep. Bill Ohm of Nashua proposed redirecting half of the charitable share to host communities, arguing that cities like Nashua bear real costs—policing, traffic, infrastructure—from hosting large casinos without receiving a cent directly. The House Ways and Means Committee voted 16–4 to send the bill to interim study, a move widely interpreted as a quiet burial. The political muscle of the charitable gaming lobby, which brings nonprofits and operators into alignment against any revenue-sharing changes, proved formidable.
The Cost Nobody Wants to Talk About
As the money has grown, so have the warning signs. Calls to the New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling have more than doubled in three years, rising from 205 in 2021 to 439 in 2024. Ed Talbot, the council’s executive director and a person in recovery from gambling addiction for 47 years, has been sounding the alarm about the introduction of slot machines, which research shows are among the most addictive forms of gambling. Addiction onset is more than three times faster with slots than with table games, lotteries, or animal racing.
The state’s investment in problem gambling treatment has not kept pace with the industry’s explosive growth. New Hampshire currently allocates $250,000 a year for problem gambling services—a figure that multiple lawmakers across party lines have described as inadequate. There is no statewide self-exclusion program that would allow a person who voluntarily bans themselves from one casino to be automatically barred from all of them, though Senate Bill 83 has been advanced to address that gap.
The Spectrum Gaming report itself, commissioned by the state, flagged the concern. The consultants noted that New Hampshire’s problem-gambling infrastructure lags behind comparable states and urged officials to conduct a thorough assessment of funding and services in light of the industry’s rapid expansion.
What Comes Next
The industry shows no signs of slowing down. More casinos are in the pipeline, existing facilities are expanding, and legislators have explored legalizing online casino gaming—a move that would open the market to anyone with a smartphone. A 2025 Senate bill proposed allowing three to six online gaming platforms, taxed at 45 percent, with proceeds going to the general fund, special education, and services for the elderly and disabled. The bill stalled, but supporters intend to bring it back.
Meanwhile, the charitable gaming commission required under a 2025 law is working toward a November 2026 report that will assess the industry’s economic impact, regulatory structure, and social costs. For many lawmakers, that report will be the first comprehensive look at what New Hampshire has become in the gaming world—and whether the state is prepared for what comes next.
In a state that has spent decades fighting off proposals for a broad-based tax, the charitable casino model has delivered something that would have seemed impossible a decade ago: hundreds of millions of dollars in new economic activity, tens of millions for the state treasury, and a growing source of funding for nonprofits—all without touching the income or sales tax. The question Granite Staters are only beginning to grapple with is what that windfall costs in ways that don’t show up on a balance sheet.
Sources: NH Lottery and Gaming Commission data, Concord Monitor, NHPR, Valley News, Business NH Magazine, Spectrum Gaming Group report (2024), Citizens Count, and legislative testimony.
