New Hampshire lottery could hurt Massachusetts

Lottery officials of the Bay State gathered this week to discuss the potential harm of New Hampshire’s proposed online lottery.

US.- As New Hampshire is getting ready to allow online lottery ticket sales in the state, neighboring Massachusetts officials are worried over the fact that internet sales could negatively impact their own lottery sales.

Massachusetts Lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney told the Lottery Commission said: “We’re facing a lot of different types of pressure as a lottery and New Hampshire being more aggressive and receiving more empowerment from their state legislature will have an impact on us, and clearly a negative impact as revenue goes.” As the Statehouse News Service reported, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said: “We’re sitting here, like dead ducks.”

New Hampshire doesn’t have a state income tax, therefore lottery winners have the right to keep an extra 5 percent of the winnings. Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, said that they will be marketing that benefit in a big way.

As upi.com reported, losing large amounts of lottery revenue to the neighboring lottery could hurt the state budget in Massachusetts, where lawmakers are urging state legislature to legalise online ticket sales as well.

Back in May, Massachusetts Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said that online lottery and online gaming are both issues reviewed and that they were trying to figure out how to manage the situation so the Lottery doesn’t get hurt. “In the case of online gaming, that we don’t hurt the casino industry we’re building in Massachusetts,” he added.