Gambling means revenue and jobs

NH Business Review Staff,

To the editor:

While the state of New Hampshire faces an enormous and critical budget shortfall and needed services go lacking, jobs continue to disappear, businesses and families struggle, and more homes are being foreclosed every day.

A new source of revenue and job creation is needed now. The expansion of gambling would provide hundreds of millions to the state and create jobs in a variety of sectors without the imposition of a regressive sales tax, income tax or several other projected new taxes.

Gambling has been legal in New Hampshire since 1933, and it has never adversely affected the quality of life we enjoy. Every day citizens are wagering on the state lottery, Powerball, horse racing and greyhound racing. Moreover, charitable poker, blackjack, craps, roulette and bingo also are legal.

Would it make that much difference if someone bets $2 on the Kentucky Derby or puts eight quarters into a video lottery terminal at the racetrack? I think not.

Lynne Snierson
Salem

Categories: Cook on Concord

More news from NHBR:
Health, News

The drive no one should have to make — and the effort underway to end it

If you live in Manchester or Concord, you probably don’t think twice about finding a doctor. There is a specialist within a few miles for almost anything you need. But if you live in Colebrook, or Lancaster, or any one of dozens of small communities spread across New Hampshire’s North Country, the picture looks very different, and the gap between those two realities is wider than most people realize.