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New Hampshire’s charitable casinos offer table games with a $10 maximum bet, but are anxious to see electronic gambling, which has the potential to attract an entirely new clientele. As New Hampshire lacks the sort of full-service poker options a state like California provides, poker fans from the state are left with two choices: Make the long drive across the border to a casino with a poker room in a neighboring state, or fire up the home computer and take their pick from the tens of thousands of games running around the clock online. New Hampshire has joined the ranks of states with live and legal sports betting. Chris Sununu placed the first online wager via DraftKings Sportsbook, betting on the New England Patriots to win Super Bowl LIV. Eight months later, DraftKings launched retail sports betting becoming the first and only option in the state.

Racing and Charitable Gaming is a division of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission. It regulates Simulcast Horse and Greyhound Racing in New Hampshire under RSA 284, Games of Chance Regulations under RSA 287-D and Bingo and Lucky 7 Regulations under RSA 287-E. New Hampshire is carving out its own model of sports betting regulation. The state has no licensed casinos, so using casinos as the conduit for legal sports betting is a non-starter. All sports betting will be under the aegis of the Lottery Commission which is how its done in other states like Oregon and the District of Columbia.

As New Hampshire lacks the sort of full-service poker options a state like California provides, poker fans from the state are left with two choices: Make the long drive across the border to a casino with a poker room in a neighboring state, or fire up the home computer and take their pick from the tens of thousands of games running around the clock online.

While some people do choose the former, it’s the latter option – online poker – that has truly been embraced by players from New Hampshire.

We’re going to take a closer look at the state’s relationship with poker (and gambling) from a few perspectives, including legal, cultural and historical, in our Guide to Online Poker in New Hampshire.

Latest Updates on New Hampshire Online Poker

The people of New Hampshire have been noticing neighboring states offer more gambling options. Massachusetts has several casinos sprouting up, and the Canadian province of Quebec, just across the border, has more gambling than New Hampshire. Lawmakers, too, have seen the benefits that other states have reaped, especially in the New England area. Not only do those states benefit from boosted tourism, they take in more revenue.

Within the past decade, there were several attempts to increase gambling opportunities. In 2013, Governor Maggie Hassan seriously lobbied for casinos after learning about the efforts of neighboring Massachusetts. At that time, she said the state could lose approximately $75 million per year to casinos across the state border.

It took studies and two years, but Hassan worked with several lawmakers in 2015 to push a bill that would have allowed the construction of two land-based casinos in New Hampshire. The Senate bill did well and passed, but the House side rejected it by a fairly wide margin.

In 2017, three Republican legislators introduced an online gambling bill to decriminalize and legalize online poker and casino games. They saw the success of the games in New Jersey and wanted to do something similar in New Hampshire. The bill didn’t receive much attention until a House executive session in October of that year, at which time the committee voted unanimously to declare the bill “inexpedient to legislate,” meaning dead.

Since then, New Hampshire hasn’t been keen to introduce new bills pertaining to casinos or online gaming. However, it has been in the news with regard to gambling.

In late 2018, the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memo to overturn the 2011 Wire Act decision. That 2011 decision was what made states believe that they could offer online lotteries, casino games, and internet poker. The DOJ under the Trump Administration overturned that to restore the original meaning of the Wire Act. Many states with online gambling threatened lawsuits, but it was the New Hampshire threat that turned into an actual case. The New Hampshire Lottery Commission sued the US Justice Department and US Attorney General William Barr.

The announcement from New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, and Lottery Executive Director Charlie McIntyre came in February 2019 in the US District Court. The state’s lottery offered online lottery sales based on the 2011 opinion, and those sales helped support educational initiatives in New Hampshire. In 2018 alone, the lottery generated $87.5 million for education. The new ruling from the DOJ put that line of revenue in jeopardy.

NeoPollard, the company that provides the software platform for the New Hampshire Lottery, joined the Commission in the case. They received support from online lotteries and online gambling states across the country. And they actually won their case in the US District Court.

The Justice Department was not pleased, however, and filed an appeal. That appeal is currently accepting its briefs and should hear the case sometime in 2021.

The Basics of Online Poker in New Hampshire

It can be a challenge to separate one online poker room from the next. Many appear quite generic, or even share confusingly similar names. That’s where a site like ours comes into play. We’re intimately familiar with just about every poker room online, so it’s a simple task for us to list the top poker sites in New Hampshire. We don’t just pull these names from a hat; all of the sites on here hold valid, legal operating licenses, have a history of handling player funds responsibly and have earned reputations for running fair, safe games:

Can Poker Players From New Hampshire Play Poker Online?

Not all online poker sites are open to players from the United States. But at the poker rooms online that do accept American customers, NH online poker players are welcome across the board. That takes the only real hurdle between you and the virtual tables out of the way, as signing up and making a real-money deposit at an online poker room in New Hampshire is a dead-simple affair that will only take a few minutes of your time. That sure beats trekking it out to Foxwoods, right?

Is it legal to operate an online poker room in New Hampshire? What about playing for real money at an online poker site from New Hampshire? As is the unfortunate case with nearly all US states, New Hampshire gambling laws are less than totally clear on the issue of online gambling.

Players with any concern about the legality of their activity should immediately consult an attorney, and should not rely on this website (or others) for legal advice.

Summary of New Hampshire Gambling Codes

To start, here’s where you can find the complete state code below . For a bit of help with what can be some admittedly dense reading, here is a brief list of some core components of New Hampshire gambling laws:

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New Hampshire has one of the most limited definitions of gambling that you’ll find on the books in any US state. Gambling is:

“to risk something of value upon a future contingent event not under one’s control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that something of value will be received in the event of a certain outcome” (Section 647:2(II(d))).

While the definition may be a bit vague, the law is quite clear when it comes to engaging in gambling: Doing so is illegal (a misdemeanor) unless the activity is specifically exempted from the law. Section 647:1(I(a)) makes it a crime if someone:

“Gambles, or loans money or any thing of value for the purpose of aiding another to gamble.”

When it comes to illegal gambling operations in NH, size matters. It’s a misdemeanor if someone

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“conducts, finances, manages, supervises, directs, or owns all or part of a business and such person knowingly and unlawfully permits gambling on the premises of the business” (Section 647:2(I-a)).

However, if that gambling generates more than $2,000 in a day, operates for more than 10 days or takes in over $5,000 in wagers over a 30 day period, the charge is bumped up to a felony.

Poker is not referenced as being illegal in New Hampshire’s gambling law. Online gambling and online poker are not specifically mentioned in the New Hampshire state code.

When Will New Hampshire Regulate Online Poker?

The rise of online gambling in New England will likely spur New Hampshire to action in the coming years. Not only do New Jersey and Delaware offer online poker and casino games, Pennsylvania just launched their new industry in 2019 and West Virginia might join in 2022.

It is not likely that New Hampshire will pursue new legislation to legalize online gambling until the Wire Act case is settled. This may require another year or two if the case goes to the US Supreme Court, which some judges and analysts have predicted. Should New Hampshire win the case, however, there is a high likelihood that its lawmakers will consider expanding gambling once again.

New Hampshire Gambling Facts

Two aspects of New Hampshire’s history with gambling merit particular mention. The first is the state’s historic race tracks, one of which – Rockingham Park – has been in operation for over a century. While live racing is no longer a part of New Hampshire gambling, the state nonetheless played a critical role in the nationwide spread of pari-mutuel wagering on racing events.

Gamblers also have New Hampshire to thank for what is arguably the most prevalent form of regulated betting in the United States – the lottery. While New Hampshire certainly didn’t invent the lottery, they were the first to bring legal, state-administered lottery games back within the law back in 1964.

New Hampshire’s Famous Poker Players

Most players who claim New Hampshire as their home state today are not as famous or infamous. Even so, several of them got their start playing online poker and transitioned to live poker after Black Friday. None of them have exceeded $1 million in earnings in that realm, and some of them on this list (James Guinther, Jeff Cohen, etc.) haven’t played in years. The others are players to watch, though.

As of 2021, these were the top-ranked live poker players from New Hampshire, according to the Hendon Mob database:

1. Dan Chalifour ($739K)
2. Michael Drummond ($735K)
3. James Guinther ($644K)
4. Cylus Watson ($593K)
5. Jeff Cohen ($560K)
6. Daniel Dipasquale ($526K)
7. Robert Brown ($510K)
8. Peter Gilmore ($486K)
9. Rodney Legendre ($308K)
10. Paul Freedman ($300K)

Sources & Citations for this Article

In 2009, a 10% tax was enacted upon any and all gambling winnings. RSA 77:38, III defines 'gambling winnings' as winnings from lotteries and games of chance including, but not limited to bingo, slot machines, keno, poker tournaments, and any other gambling winnings subject to federal income tax withholding. For New Hampshire residents, the Gambling Winnings Tax is a tax upon all gambling winnings derived from anywhere. For non-New Hampshire residents, the tax is imposed upon gambling winnings from New Hampshire entities. The New Hampshire Lottery Commission and the New Hampshire Charitable Gaming and Racing Commission are required to withhold all tax due and payable to the state from any payout of gambling winnings. If the tax has not been withheld by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission and the New Hampshire Charitable Gaming and Racing Commission, the taxpayer is required to pay the tax directly to the State. Payment of the tax is made by the taxpayer with the filing of the Gambling Winnings Tax return on or before April 15th.

In 2010, Chapter 371, Laws of 2010, effective July 23, 2010, an exemption was created for gambling winnings won prior to January 1, 1999 and distributed in annuity payments.