NH Restaurant Owners Urge Lawmakers to Pass Gambling

CONCORD – Citing a strong economic benefit to the state’s hospitality industry,   several restaurant owners endorsed SB 152, a plan to legalize casino gambling in New Hampshire. The group hopes the New Hampshire House will pass the plan, warning against the damage done to the entire industry if they fail to act on this unique opportunity.

“Projects of this size don’t come often,” explains Chuck Rolecek, former owner of the Hanover Street Chophouse and CR Sparks restaurants. Rolecek is a founding member of Fix It Now, a grassroots group in support of expanded gambling in New Hampshire. “Casino gambling would provide significant economic development to southern New Hampshire. The thousands of jobs that would come to a casino speak for themselves. So do the thousands of construction jobs a project of this magnitude would bring.”

The group sharply disagrees with critics who predict a casino will take away customers and cash from surrounding businesses. Shorty’s President and COO Jay DelMonte says he has a question for those critics: “What if we don't move forward as a state? The answer is clear. The casinos that are going to open in Massachusetts will most certainly draw away business from New Hampshire. That is millions of dollars that could be spent here, but will be lost to our south.”

Restaurant owners point to the NH Center for Public Policy Studies report which predicts $24 million dollars in rooms and meals tax revenues which will be siphoned off each year when Massachusetts casinos open. Alternately, SB 152 would raise an estimated $130 million in non-tax revenue each year, and studies predict four million visits to New Hampshire each year.

“A well run, high end casino would serve as a magnet for millions of visitors to New Hampshire,” says DelMonte. “The entire hospitality industry would benefit from a fresh influx of new people and dollars. This plan would boost business.

In real estate, location matters. And restaurant owners closest to a proposed casino site in Salem see opportunity, not potential losses. “On the horizon there is no other non-weather dependent opportunity to bring more people over the border from Massachusetts, into our region, than a casino,” explains Joe Faro, owner of the Tuscan Kitchen in Salem, near the site of Rockingham Park racetrack.

“We would strive to cater to these new customers and know that we would benefit from not just the existence of the casino but a strong relationship with it.”

Chris Pappas, whose family owns and operates the Back Room in Manchester, supports SB 152 as well. "As a small business owner, I know we need public policy that will support economic growth and job creation,” explains Pappas. “SB 152 will generate significant economic activity and allow New Hampshire to retain its share of gambling revenue that would increasingly flow to other states. The hospitality industry will be strengthened by permitting one high-end, highly regulated casino in our state. I hope the legislature looks at this issue in a pragmatic way and supports this economic development proposal."

North Country voices are speaking up in support of gambling, including Seammus McGrath, owner of McGrath’s Tavern in North Conway. “This proposal gives our region to compete for a license for a casino, but it goes beyond that; it provides economic development dollars to our area which will help all of us.” McGrath points out, the Oxford, ME casino is just an hour away from his tavern, and billboards are all over town inviting visitors to Maine. “A casino would mean huge revenues for New Hampshire,” predicts McGrath.

Rolecek says there is plenty of evidence to show a casino can be a boon to an entire region.  He points to the $1 billion dollars in economic development in southwestern Pennsylvania as evidence of revenue and business successes.

Jim Makris, owner of Makris restaurant in Concord, agrees. He points to the recent successes of gambling in Maine as proof that this should be a no-brainer vote for New Hampshire lawmakers. “I can gamble on my laptop right now. We have a multi-million dollar charity gambling industry in our state today. It’s here. There is no reason to wait on this proposal, pass gambling and give people another reason to come to New Hampshire.”

These high profile hospitality leaders have several decades of experience, and all agree none have seen a non-tax revenue opportunity like this, with a $425 million dollar minimum investment that won’t require public tax dollars. 

“When the Verizon Wireless Arena was proposed, many said it could never happen – that support would never be there for it, or that it might do harm to existing businesses,” explains Rolecek. “Look at it now. They sure proved their critics wrong.”

“The New Hampshire Lottery is another example,” says Pappas. “No other state ever did one before us in 1963; many said it was too risky to be first to do this, because it will hurt existing businesses. Look at it all these years later.”

“New Hampshire, the time is now,” explains Rolecek. “Projects like these don’t come often and we need to seize it."