New Hampshire iGaming Push Still Awaits Legalization After Senate Advances

New Hampshire has advanced online casino legislation in the Senate before, but those votes have yet to produce a legal iGaming market.

The most recent proposal, Senate Bill 168, was introduced in 2025 and advanced through the Senate Ways and Means Committee before being tabled by its sponsor, Sen. Timothy Lang, on March 6. The measure ultimately died on the table.

That followed a similar attempt in 2023. SB 104 received a 13-11 Senate vote on Feb. 22, 2023, before the Senate approved an amended version 12-11 on March 30. The House Ways and Means Committee subsequently recommended against it 20-0, and the House indefinitely postponed the bill on May 4.

For bettors, the distinction matters. New Hampshire has legal online and retail sports betting and online lottery games, but it does not have a licensed market for real-money online casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and slots.

Past Senate progress fell short

SB 104, sponsored by Lang, sought to regulate online gambling and direct proceeds toward a community college scholarship fund. Its fiscal analysis explicitly described the proposal as authorizing internet casino games, with the New Hampshire Lottery Commission serving as regulator.

Lang returned with SB 168 in 2025. The Senate Ways and Means Committee recommended passage with an amendment by a 3-2 vote, but Lang subsequently moved to table the bill, and the motion passed.

As introduced, SB 168 would have allowed licensed gaming facilities to contract with internet gaming operators. The Lottery Commission would have approved between three and six online gaming platforms and overseen licensing and regulatory compliance.

The proposal included measures such as age and identity verification, geolocation, wagering limits and self-exclusion. Those provisions described how a potential market would operate; they did not authorize online casinos to launch.

Charitable gaming remains central

One of the biggest questions surrounding New Hampshire iGaming has been how online casinos would affect the state's charitable gaming industry.

A 2025 amendment required operators to collect 45% of gross online gaming revenue for distribution. Of that amount, 35% would have gone to charitable organizations partnering with licensed operators, while the remaining 65% would have gone to the commission for distribution among state funds.

That means the proposed 35% charity allocation would have applied to the 45% collected from gross gaming revenue, not 35% of total online casino revenue.

What betting is legal in New Hampshire?

Sports betting operates under a separate framework. Mobile wagering launched in December 2019, with DraftKings serving as the state's exclusive digital sportsbook operator. New Hampshire also has five DraftKings retail sportsbook locations, according to the Lottery.

The state's online lottery is also distinct from commercial iGaming. New Hampshire Lottery currently offers online draw games and e-Instant games, with real-money play requiring users to be physically located in the state.

Sports betting has become a significant source of gaming activity. The Lottery's unaudited FY2026 report recorded $480.2 million in combined sports betting handle through December 2025, generating $55 million in gross gaming revenue and $24.2 million in state revenue share.

New Hampshire's existing sportsbook and iLottery markets show that online wagering is already established in the state. What remains unresolved is whether lawmakers will extend that framework to full-scale online casino gaming.

For now, previous Senate votes have demonstrated support for the concept, but neither SB 104 nor SB 168 ultimately created a state-licensed iGaming market.