New Hampshire Launches Nonprofit Responsible Gaming Council

New Hampshire’s bubbling casino industry has prompted a response from regulators concerned by the spread of problem gambling.

The state is home to 14 licensed retail casinos, while DraftKings Sportsbook handles its legal sports betting enterprise. It also has bingo nights and a state-run lottery. 

Although New Hampshire’s 2025 population was the 10th-smallest in the United States, the increasing number of gambling options has led to an increase in problematic behaviors. Accordingly, the New Hampshire Council for Responsible Gaming was created to help reduce the prevalence of gambling harm.

New Hampshire responsible gambling council

The newly-created Council is a nonprofit organization “committed to fostering a balanced, informed approach to gaming,” per its website. Responsible gaming is a term used to describe behaviors expressed by gamblers that do not lead to potentially harmful circumstances or situations, such as blowing through a budget and making wagers that a bettor can’t afford to lose.

“When you have gaming and an expansion of gaming at this level, you would invite problems, and the problems are addiction,” said Lou D’Allesandro, former state senator and board member of the council. “You’ve got to have something in place to deal with this, and the Council for Responsible Gambling is going to create that.”

In 1964, New Hampshire became the first state to introduce a state lottery. The 2006 introduction of the first charitable gaming model intended to classify what are now known as casinos as small, locally-owned facilities that would support charitable efforts and nonprofit organizations. 

Those intentions have been left in the past. Patrick Abrami, the former chair of the state’s gaming commission responsible for studying changes in charitable gaming, said “everything [had] changed” regarding the state’s casino industry.

Local gamers are now entitled to play blackjack, roulette, slot machines, and other common casino attractions at their favorite locations. That’s in addition to being allowed to take a risk on the lottery and to place wagers from mobile betting apps.

Focusing on consumer safety

New Hampshire’s growing gambling market has produced serious economic benefits for its government. Since sports betting was legalized in 2019, it has added more than $153 million to its fund designated for public education, according to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission. Sports betting also added $39 million in revenue during the most recent fiscal year alone.

Even still, the negative effects of problem gambling have cast a shadow over the economic stimulus.

“We are behind 8 ball on this topic, and we’re trying to play catch-up,” said State Sen. Tim Lang (R-District 2).

The new Council broke its core principles into “The 5 C’s”: care, commitment, collaboration, championing, and cultivation.

Care is defined as providing support, guidance, and resources; commitment is a promise to make a positive impact; collaboration is for working with local, state, and national partners; championing is fighting for increased resources and funding for support; and cultivation is for working on community-focused initiatives and solutions.

Local lawmakers last year introduced a self-exclusion program that allowed individuals to voluntarily ban themselves from participating in gambling. Anyone who banned themselves from one casino was automatically banned from all facilities across the state, ensuring that they did not fall victim to temptation after deciding that they could not protect themselves from dangerous gambling behaviors.