New Hampshire Wants to Raise the Sports Gambling Age to 21

According to a new piece of proposed legislation, House Bill 83, the state’s youths are at risk of developing a litany of problems because of gambling.

Lawmakers Keen to Change Sports Gambling Age in New Hampshire

House Members Sallie Fellows and Michael Cahill and Sen. Ruth Ward and Sen. Suzanne Prentiss have argued that the minimum gambling age for sports betting should become 21, up from 18 presently.

New Hampshire is an outlier by most standards, as the state allows people as young as 18 to actually place a wager on the outcome of sporting events. Only seven other states do the same, whereas the majority of the jurisdictions that regulate sports gambling in the United States have a firm age restriction of 21 or older.

The bill is to be introduced to the state House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, January 8, and should it all go according to plan, The Granite State may see the legal gambling age for sports gambling changed to 21 in 2026.

Lawmakers are yet to deliberate, but recently there has been a strong push on a legislative level to introduce tougher restrictions on gambling, making the activity safer.  However, achieving this would also come at a cost. Sportsbooks will see their revenues shrink and so will the contributions they pay to the state coffers.

According to one estimate, the state will receive $640,000 less from the exclusive sportsbook provider, as DraftKings will see the pool of bettors shrink. However, the long-term impact on the industry ought to be better.

U-21s are among the most vulnerable groups when it comes to gambling. Allowing them to wager from an early age is already linked to various issues later in life, including the development of a gambling problem.

Protecting them early could potentially mean they will have a more healthy relationship to gambling for years to come.

No Cross-Border Gambling for Youths

New Hampshire is an outlier in another way, as it only licenses and regulates a single sportsbook – DraftKings, which has enjoyed a de facto monopoly locally. However, with fewer sports bettors to go around, this means that DraftKings may also suffer in its ability to offer more competitive markets.

The good news is that neighboring states such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York and Maine all have set their sports gambling age at 21, meaning that youths cannot just cross borders in order to place a quick flutter.