Apparently, the New Hampshire Lottery thinks it’s going to cut a deficit gap by opening an online casino. Why the nihilism you ask? And since when did opening an online casino mean there wouldn’t be some serious profiteering, especially if run by a government-based, monopoly-ish entity. I know monopoly-ish is not a word, but you get what I’m trying to say.

Well, besides the fact that I find it utterly laughable that the United States government has not overturned the UIGEA yet, now that individual State’s are attempting to tap into the online gambling industry, I am simply bowled over. In all honesty, I will find it irresistibly deplorable if the UIGEA still has its way after the New Hampshire Lottery opens an online casino. And not that the UIGEA really has it’s way to begin with, considering the millions of Americans still gambling online for real money anyhow.

Now, before I go on, I want to clarify that this is indeed an online casino we’re talking about – not a Web portal for purchasing lottery tickets online. Due to a steady decline in lottery revenue, New Hampshire’s best think the solution is to open an online casino, for apparently, New Hampshire residents want better odds than a lottery ticket affords. Well, can you blame ‘em?

Lottery officials also blame online casinos for the loss in ticket revenue, and thus have a legitimate excuse for seemingly spitting in the face of the UIGEA. And while the New Hampshire Lottery may be right about losing business to online casinos – to a certain extent – there are other factors assuredly contributing to losses in lottery revenue during these economic times.

But hold on just a minute regarding that part about defying the UIGEA. Instead of actually taking deposits through their website, the New Hampshire Lottery says they will require bettors (only New Hampshire residents, of course) to physically enter payment centers in New Hampshire. That way, no terrorists can launder any money. In other words, if you’re Arab, good luck trying to make a deposit at a payment center.

But seriously folks, this is more laughable than the UIGEA itself. I mean, haven’t Las Vegas casinos already tried to create a similar setup. If people are forced to drive into a payment center to make deposits, they might as well make the six hour drive to Atlantic City or Pennsylvania, where there are all sorts of casino games available. Maybe six hours is a long drive, but you shouldn’t be gambling that much anyways. Am I right!? Besides, with a hotel comp for the weekend, hitting up Atlantic City or Mohegan Sun is incomparably more fun and entertaining than sitting at your computer, logged onto the New Hampshire Lottery website and playing what will likely be online casino games sans innovation and respectable graphics.

Anyhow, let’s see how it goes, shall we? New Hampshire’s online casino was scheduled to open this month, but due to protestations (probably for a variety of reasons), the launching of the website has been delayed until August.

Tags: New Hampshire Casinos, online gambling in new hampshire, online gambling in us

This entry was posted on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Land Casinos, News, Online Casinos, Regulation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.