Is Online Poker Legal in New Hampshire?

New Hampshire may have been the first state to introduce a lottery, but in recent years it has taken an incredibly tough approach towards unregulated gambling, and it appears to be amongst the strictest in the country in this regard. Let’s take a little look at the laws here.

Gambling Laws

Firstly, let’s take a little look at what could be defined as gambling within the law of New Hampshire:

Section 647.2(II)(d)
“Gambling ” means 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. [1]

Now, the interesting thing to note about this legislation is that it is slightly different to the law of other states which actually include games of skill under the law. The definition that you see here actually allows games of skill to some degree as the player will have a little control over the outcome of the game!

There are different penalties for those that take part in unregulated gambling and those that operate it. However, there have been little to no arrests in New Hampshire for gambling related offences, which means that it is unlikely that somebody will be arrested, however, you do need to consider that it is a possibility that could actually happen if you are not careful.

There are only a few regulated forms of gambling within New Hampshire. This includes gambling on horse racing and a state lottery.

Casinos and Live Poker

There are no casinos within New Hampshire, which means that you will be unable to play Live Poker here, however, at some of the race tracks there are ‘limited’ casino options. Charitable poker games are allowed, although these are subject to conditions which pretty much suck the fun out of playing sadly, although this is always an option.

However, you could argue that poker isn’t really applicable under this law because it involves a degree of skill where the player has an effect on the outcome of the match and whilst social gambling is not mentioned under the law, you could use this law as a defense before the courts, although, this is just a matter of opinion and there is a chance that poker could be included under current gambling legislation, although I saw no case law which suggested it would.

One thing is for sure, based on the low amount of arrests for gambling offences in New Hampshire, it is unlikely you would be ‘caught out’ for playing a quick game every so often!

Online Poker

There is no mention of online poker in the law, which means that we will just have to assume that it isn’t legal based on the definition above, although of course, you do need to factor in that it could be a game of skill and chance which means that the law wouldn’t be applicable. You may be able to get away with playing outside of state.

It is unlikely that online gambling will be allowed in the future as there appears to be no interest, but since the law is so relaxed on games of skill in the state, it can only be a matter of time.

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