Gambling on the ballot for Nashua and Portsmouth – Yahoo News

Nov. 1During Tuesday's municipal elections, voters in Nashua will be asked again if they want to see an in-person sportsbook location in the Gate City, and Portsmouth voters will be asked if they want Keno locations.

After a 2019 law legalized sports betting in New Hampshire and up to 10 brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, voters in six cities, including Manchester, approved sportsbook locations. Nashua narrowly rejected sportsbooks in 2019, as did Concord.

Fourteen towns approved sportsbooks during their spring 2020 town meetings.

But that does not guarantee a location will open. The state lottery commission and the sole company the state contracts with to run sports betting DraftKings can decide if they want to take up a city's invitation to open.

Absent a brick-and-mortar location, bets can be placed from a mobile phone app, as long as the gambler is physically in the state of New Hampshire.

In August, the lottery commissioner said he was eyeing locations on the Seacoast and the Massachusetts border. The commissioner estimated half of the sports bets made in New Hampshire come from Massachusetts residents.

In the two years since sports betting was legalized in New Hampshire, only two sportsbooks have opened, one in Seabrook and one in Manchester.

The Manchester location has been the site of at least two violent crimes this year. A man was shot nearly to death in the parking lot in April, and another was threatened with a gun in February.

Portsmouth voters will be asked to decide if they want to allow Keno in city businesses.

Approval for Keno has become far more widespread than approval for sportsbook locations. The quick-pick game was legalized in 2017, in an effort to catch money from gamblers who had been crossing into Massachusetts to play Keno, and help pay for full-day kindergarten.

Voters in almost 90 towns and cities have let Keno in. That has led to more than 200 kiosks in restaurants and social clubs around the state.

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Gambling on the ballot for Nashua and Portsmouth - Yahoo News