Senator Lou D’Allesandro is the next sponsor of the gambling expansion within the state of New Hampshire. He has presented a bill that proposes the construction of two new casinos that would make the state competitive in the casino industry and boost the budget directed to local communities and neighboring towns where the casinos will be built.

Last week, D’Allesandro’s SB 242 passed the Senate with a 13:10 margin which is one step further in his battle and it definitely gives hope. Prior to appearing before the House, the bill will need to get the green light from Senate Finance Committee, whose members have managed to hamper similar ambitions in the past. In 2014, a similar bill reached the House but it was one vote short of approval.

According to Senator Lou D’Allesandro, New Hampshire is not only letting the neighboring states move ahead in the casino industry, but it is also sending their residents to play elsewhere due to the lack of casinos within the state. This is how he comments on the situation:

“While New Hampshire has done nothing, surrounding states now have gaming entities,” he said. “They advertise on our TV stations and we send buses of New Hampshire residents to those other states to gamble. It’s time for New Hampshire to do something. No state that has done this (expanded gaming) has crumbled.”

SB242 proposes the construction of two casinos, one of which would operate under category one license, meaning that it would be able to house between 80 and 160 table games and between 2,000 and 3,500 slots. The other casino would hold category two license, which allows the operators to provide between 750 and 1,500 slot machines and between 25 and 80 tables. A fixed license fee would be set to $80 million for Category 1 license and $40 million for Category 2 license.

New Hampshire is not new to gambling. In fact the struggle to open the casinos has been going on for more than 15 years, but with no results. Currently, New Hampshire gamblers can play at card rooms which are regulated by The Racing and Charitable Gaming Commission. These venues are authorized and provide other gambling activities such as card and table games.

As far as other gambling activities go such as Keno and Daily Fantasy Sports, the legislators in New Hampshire have already filed relevant bills by the beginning of this year. The bill that suggests allowing Keno games at existing gambling locations was proposed by the House this January and successfully passed the voting, while now it is waiting for the hearings of the Senate and Means Committee. These hearings will review another gambling bill – HB 562, which concerns regulation of video gambling.

If you live in New Hampshire or any of the other states which do not allow gambling, and in particular online gambling, see the USA online casinos we recommend. Play at any of the online casinos for real money and you can be certain your funds are safe and the games are fair. Play online slot machines or enjoy many of the casino games offered. Every casino listed here at USA Legal Casinos welcomes USA players and accepts USA deposits.

Later this week Georgia might make their first step towards legalizing casinos through Senate Bill 79 and Senate Resolution 249 proposed by Senator Brandon Beach. The resolution and the bill aim to allow the construction of two casinos in the state of Georgia. The bill will be presented before the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee first and should it pass, the only thing left will be to get the green light from the Senate.

The legislators in Georgia are determined to legalize casinos, therefore they are starting the year with a new bill which would regulate the terms and condition under which the two predicted casinos would be constructed and operated. Considering the fact that in order to make casinos legal in the state, it would be enough to amend the current legislation that imposes ban on casinos, Senator Beach has introduced Senate Resolution 249 as well. The resolution would be enough to lift the ban, however, detailed regulations must be defined through a new act of law.

Senate Bill 79 proposes the construction of two casinos – one in Atlanta and the other one in Savannah or Georgia coast. The former will have to meet the requirement of being worth $2 billion or more. There will be a 20% tax on annual gambling revenue, while 50% of their income would have to be generated through non-gambling services.

The main reason why the lawmakers in Georgia are advocating for the legalization of casinos is to boost the budget for scholarship program HOPE currently sponsored by lottery. According to SB 79 30% of the tax levy paid by casino operators will be spent on merit based scholarships (HOPE program), 30% would be spent on needs-based scholarship, while the rest will go to healthcare.

The bill and the resolution will be proposed before Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee on Thursday. In case of a favorable outcome, the bill is passed to the Senate for voting and the number of votes Beach will need is 29. Even if this happens the decision process will not be over yet. Once the locations are determined the residents of the areas will have their say on a referendum vote.

Opponents of legalizing casinos will definitely stand against this proposal and, as they did before, try to thwart these attempts. Nevertheless, Beach firmly believes that the bill will pass the Senate and that the state of Georgia will have two new casino resorts.

There is no mention of letting the casinos offer internet gambling, though this would be the next logical step. Should the revenue from casinos start flowing, there is no doubt that the lawmakers will consider exploiting the popularity of USA online casinos and online casino games. As Atlantic City has learned the online side of the business is where the growth is and was Atlantic City’s only increase in revenue for 10 years.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the only recognized tribe in the state is planning to open the third casino under their operation. The Choctaw Tribal Council, with 16 representatives of all Choctaw communities has approved the construction of the new casino on the Red Water community. The newly-built casino will be called Red Water Casino and it will be the 34th casino in the state of Mississippi and it will be located in Leake County.

According to the press release, the Choctaw Tribal Council held a special meeting on Friday to discuss Resolution CHO 17-033 which aims to expand gaming in the Red Water community. Sixteen council members present at the meeting, who represent the Choctaw communities, voted and the final result of the voting showed that 9 voted in favour of the construction of the new casino and 7 voted against, which means that the Resolution was approved.

The Red Water Casino will spread on 35,000 square feet and it will include casino space, restaurants and entertainment facilities. Within the gaming space there will be 500 machines to play real money slots and 10 tables for live casino games.

Surely it will be a big boost for the Choctaw Indians whose population now counts over 10,000 members. The Choctaw Tribe already operates Pearl River Resort which includes two casinos: Silver Star Hotel and Casino and Golden Moon Hotel and Casino in Neshoba County and the Bok Homa Casino in Sandersville. According to the Tribal Chief Phyliss J. Anderson the new casino will be investment in the future of the tribe. The casino will bring more jobs and more revenue to the Choctaw population. Last year they have managed to refinance the gaming debt thanks to the increase in the annual revenue of their casinos. Hopefully the new casino will bring even more increase.

Indian tribes rely to a great extent on gambling activity as a boost to their economy. Thanks to Indian Gaming Regulatory Act brought in 1988, they have sovereignty on their land and they are able to bring decisions about gaming without the interference of the state. However, this applies only to Class I (social gaming or traditional forms of gambling during celebrations) and Class II gaming (bingo and lottery). If a tribe has the ambition to operate Class III gaming activities (casino games such as slots, blackjack, etc.) then it has to reach an agreement with the state through compacts that will define rules and regulations under which these activities will operate.

Mississippi residents will soon have another casino to enjoy their favorite casino games and slots. This does of course still require you to physically visit the casino. If you want the convenience of playing online from home, see the many USA online casinos we recommend and endorse. These are the most reputable USA online casinos available and some even offer live dealer casino games where you can play at a brick and mortar casino right from the comfort of home. If you like playing table games we highly recommend you check out the USA live dealer casinos available.

New York and South Carolina are looking to tackle the same legal issues concerning gambling these days. Both states are trying to pass new bills that will allow sports betting in the case of New York and in the case of South Carolina, casino gaming and horse racing as well. The New York State Senate saw S01282 proposed by five Democrats, while in South Carolina State Representative Todd Rutherford put forward House Joint Resolution H3102. Both bills aim to amend the respective state constitution so as to allow for regulated sports betting. Considering the fact that there is a federal ban on sports betting outside of the territory of Nevada, there is not much that these amendments can do, unless the ban is lifted by the US Supreme Court.

According to the New York Amendment, S01282 which is put forward by Senator Tony Avella, the state Senate should decide whether or not they will allow legal sports betting on professional and college sports at casinos, racetracks and off-track gambling houses. This is not the first attempt of Tony Avella to try and pass such legislation, however, not one of his previous attempts had any success. The main catch is that any law that state passes cannot bypass Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

The amendment of South Carolina introduced by Representative Todd Rutherford plans to introduce not only sports betting but also casino gaming activity and horse racing. Currently the State of South Carolina allows only for lottery, bingo on tribal land and casino cruises, which does not include brick-and-mortar casinos. Representative Rutherford proposed H3102 which will have to pass with the majority of votes in the houses and then the referendum.

The main obstacle in both cases is exactly, the aforementioned PASPA, also known as the “Bradley Act” brought in 1993, according to which sports betting is illegal in all states, with the exception of those states that legalized it before the law was brought: Oregon, Delaware, Montana and Nevada. Recently there have been many attempts by several states to repeal PASPA but they were unsuccessful. New Jersey has been trying for years to legalize sports betting but unfortunately it was all in vain. What makes matters even worse for New Jersey is that they had a chance to legalize it at the time PASPA was adopted and they failed to use it. However, New Jersey is not giving up. Their latest appeal with the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals is yet to be dealt with and the outcome of this appeal will largely influence New York’s and South Carolina’s plans for legalizing sports betting.

Another US state that is tackling legal issues concerning gambling is Massachusetts which is considering legalizing online gambling activities such as USA online casinos, fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports. State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg is planning to propose a bill that would allow online gambling and generate more revenue from gambling. The time frame gives her until summer to specify the state’s view on regulating online casino games including real money slots.

Pennsylvania is looking to finally solve the issue of online gambling and regulate the market within the state borders. After much turmoil and heated debates over the proposed House bills for legalizing online gambling last year, it seems that there finally is a bright future for regulating online gambling activity in the state. Senator Jay Costa has announced the new bill concerning gaming activity which will touch upon issues such as licenses and tax for online gambling and daily fantasy sports (DFS).

The long-fought battle of pushing the online gambling bill to pass the Senate was initiated by Representative John Payne who retired by the end of last year without seeing his bill passed. The burning issue was the local tax share which was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The tax share involved a fee of $10 million or 2% for revenue higher than $500 million. The Senate reacted to fix the issue, but they by-passed the proposed Payne’s bill and included this new amendment into the previous HB 1887 which did not include clear regulations on internet gambling. The year ended with no clear answer from the Senate regarding HB 2150, which means that Payne’s battles need to be fought all over again starting from point zero, that is, drafting a new bill and sponsoring it from the start.

However, it seems that Payne’s advocating will not be in vain, as Senator Jay Costa has proposed a new bill which tends to solve more or less the same issues as the previous two bills proposed in 2016, including tax fix, daily fantasy sports, online gambling activities such as internet casinos and online lottery.

Senator Costa made this announcement following the discussion regarding online gambling with Senator Kim Ward. The newly-drafted piece of legislation intends to solve local gaming tax issues and propose license fees for land-based casinos. The current number of brick-and-mortar casinos in the state of Pennsylvania is twelve, though not all of them are expected to apply for an online casino license. Those who do apply will have to pay the fee of $10 million which amounts to a number of $100 million for the state, should 10 casinos apply for licenses as it is predicted. Under the new bill, online platforms of independent vendors will also be subject to licensing at the cost of $5 million. As for the taxes, any revenue generated from online gambling activity will be subject to a tax of 25%. Senator Costa also included the regulation of daily fantasy sports proposing a licensing fee of $2.5 million and a tax rate of 25% and the possibility of organizing online lottery.

This is definitely a good sign for all Pennsylvania players, as they are finally looking at the prospect of gambling at regulated USA online casinos, however, it is yet unclear whether the new legislation will allow online poker.