Nashua planners get ready to consider proposed casino at Pheasant Lane Mall

At a former Sears store, consumers who once searched for bargains on toasters, vacuum cleaners and air conditioners may soon test their fortunes at slot-like machines and card tables.

ECL Entertainment, together with Clairvest, a Toronto-based private equity firm, plans to open a 130,000-square-foot charitable gaming facility at the southeastern corner of the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua in late 2024. In opening the site, ECL will transfer the licenses from its earlier acquisition of The Lucky Moose Casino & Tavern and The River Casino & Sports Bar, also in Nashua.

ECL owns and operates multiple historical horse racing (HHR) facilities in Kentucky, including the Mint Casino at Kentucky Downs. A presentation of the company’s plans and a public comment session is scheduled for Sept. 7 at Nashua City Hall.

Casinos have been growing in number in New Hampshire since 2006, when the state passed a law enacting a charitable gaming model – the only one in the country where the operator and not the state sends funds to the charity. Eligible 501(c)(3) organizations registered with the Secretary of State can host up to 10 days at a casino to receive 35 percent of gross gaming revenue from table games. The law also requires casinos to give 10 percent to the New Hampshire Lottery to support public education.

The gaming industry in New Hampshire received an additional boost when, in 2021, the Legislature passed a law allowing HHR machines. It became the only state in the Northeast to legalize them and the sixth in the country after Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Virginia and Wyoming passed similar laws.

Gross gaming revenue calculations to charities from HHR machines diverge from those related to table games. With HHR machines, the operator keeps 75 percent and gives 8.75 percent to the charity and 16.25 percent to public education.

From the players’ standpoint, HHR machines look and act much like casino slots, but the technology behind them differs. HHR machines randomly select race results from a database of thousands of old races; slot machines use a random number generator to determine the outcome. Detractors of HHR machines argue they are designed to skirt the legal definition of slot machines.

-Courtesy of NH Business Review