Precisely as GSCAEG has warned for the past two years, promised casino tax rates are about to be cut from 49 to 39 percent. While his new gambling bill remains under wraps, Senator Lou D'Allesandro spilled the beans at a Saturday pitch meeting in Lancaster. This will mean much lower gambling revenue for the state.

Millennium Gaming, the Las Vegas company eyeing a Salem race track casino, played out this same bait-and-switch on taxes in Pennsylvania. Complaining to the legislature about lower-taxed gambling competitors in West Virginia, Millennium asked for a tax rate reduction on table games at their Pittsburgh-area casino. Earlier this month, the legislature caved and legalized table games at a tax rate of 16 percent, dropping to 14 percent in two years.

Casino tax rates in Connecticut are 25 percent. The rate most recently proposed for Massachusetts is 27 percent. The average U.S. casino tax rate is 22 percent.

"You can bet that even the promised 39 percent rate will not hold in New Hampshire," said Jim Rubens, Chair of Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling.

Opening the door to casinos will make New Hampshire dependent on a perpetually declining revenue source. "To balance future budgets, the state will be forced to legalize more casinos and more slot machines in more locations - in or near every community in our state," said Rubens.

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