During a review of charitable gambling laws in New Hampshire, concerns have been raised over historical horse racing terminal operator Ainsworth Game Technology.
Gambling consultancy company Spectrum Gaming Group, based in Pennsylvania, was selected in March to study New Hampshire’s charitable gaming business model with a budget of $175,000. The review revealed that while AGT operates almost half of the state’s HHR terminals, the company avoids paying money to fund problem gambling services. However, AGT’s operation remains compliant with state law.
“The reason why is because you have one of the market leaders paying almost nothing, and you have some rather small players paying pretty much all of it,” said Mark Dell’Orfano, assistant attorney general at the New Hampshire Department of Justice. “If this were a lot of money, we would start facing court challenges over this breakage model.”
Most of the New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling funding comes from breakage. AGT did not generate any breakage over the past 12 months despite having 888 terminals. However, Castle Hill Gaming, for instance, with 52 terminals, generated $92,629 of the $177,530 collected.
The breakage falls short of the allocated $250,000 budget, meaning the state Lottery Commission must step in to cover the deficit.
