Snow falls on empty starting boxes behind the Seabrook dog track, while out front, bettors are rushing through the Kennel Club doors to beat Wednesday’s midday post time.

Senior citizen siblings Peter and Nicholas Janetos are among them, stopping briefly to share their opinions about a renewed push for the legalization of video poker machines at New Hampshire’s four race tracks. The Dover brothers have no interest in video gaming, preferring instead to stick with the dogs.

"We don’t like computers," said Nicholas. "Kids do."

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Another bettor, unwilling to reveal his name "because my wife will find out I’m here," said he would "probably not" play video poker if it were legalized under a proposed bill being drafted by Sen. Lou D’Allesandro. It’s the latest in a succession of New Hampshire video gaming bills, all since defeated like a lame thoroughbred.

"I come to play the dogs," said the nameless gambler, theorizing video poker is for "people who don’t understand the dogs and want something relatively easy to do."

And according to Edward Keelan, president of Seabrook’s Yankee Greyhound Racing Park, there are enough of those people for him to anticipate making a lot of money from video poker. So much money, said Keelan, that if he sends 15 percent of the spoils to the state of New Hampshire, his current offer, that would boost the state’s budget by an estimated $2 to $3 million a year.

It’s an offer D’Allesandro likes enough to pen his fourth bill calling for the legalization of video poker machines at race tracks and "grand hotels" throughout the state, with a stipulation requiring mandatory approval from host communities.


Brothers Peter and Nicholas Janetos, of Dover, get ready to head into Seabrook's Yankee Greyhound Racing Park this past Wednesday. The track's owners are in favor of the state legalizing video poker machines.
Jamie Cohen


The Democratic senator from Manchester has support from Senate President Tom Eaton, while both have cashed campaign contribution checks from donors with ties to state race tracks.

The gaming donors include Keelan, who has hedged his bets over the years by writing campaign checks to both Republican and Democratic senatorial candidates.

Portsmouth’s freshman senator, Martha Fuller Clark, was not one of them, and opposes electronic gambling. So too does New Castle selectman and failed gubernatorial candidate Charles Tarbell, who signed a written pledge to oppose electronic gambling machines.

House Speaker Doug Scamman said he "is not for expanding gambling."

"It’s not economically or socially good for New Hampshire," he said. "Whether it’s (D’Allesandro’s) bill or somebody else’s."

Exeter’s Maggie Wood Hassan, another new senator, didn’t bank any gaming money during her recent campaign, and while she’s not convinced money collected from race tracks through video poker will exceed costs, she said she’s willing to consider both sides.

Meanwhile, unlike former Gov. Craig Benson, who signed two written promises to oppose the legalization of video gaming, Gov. John Lynch has refused to do so, said Jim Rubens, director of the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling.

Like Keelan, Rubens plans to get the new governor’s ear, but he hopes to cite a multitude of reasons he thinks "there’s no way to do this without degrading the quality of life in New Hampshire."

Rubens said gambling ruins families, opens the door for large casinos, increases crime, would cost the state more than it would make, and triggers a rise in gambling addictions.

"It’s good for a handful of monopolies," he said. "It’s not good for New Hampshire."

Keelan calls the plan "a good asset for us (while) providing the state with much-needed money."

Playing the odds

Sen. D’Allesandro is serving his fourth term, while writing his fourth pitch for video gaming.

A native of East Boston, D’Allesandro, like his father, once worked at Massachusetts’ Wonderland horse track and has "always been a fan of racing."

Though he counts on one finger the times he’s gambled himself, the senator calls himself a big supporter of racing and other gaming.

"So why wouldn’t those people support me?" he said of the gaming contributions he’s received over the years.

That includes $500 from Keelan, owner of both the Seabrook and Rockingham (Salem, N.H.) dog tracks, in November 2002, and another $1,000 from Keelan last July.

Keelan also contributed $2,000 to the failed gubernatorial bid of Paul McEachern and $500 to John Lyons’ losing Senate campaign.

He also mailed $1,000 to Senate President Eaton and $500 each to N.H. Sens. Chuck Morse, Robert Clegg and John Gallus, the latter also reportedly drafting a gaming bill.

Keelan’s beneficiaries are both Republicans and Democrats.

"These people don’t get a lot of money," he said of his political beneficiaries. "We don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all. I think that helps put some good people in office."

D’Allesandro also logged a $1,000 check last July from the New Hampshire Gaming Association, which he said is another name for Belmont’s Lakes Region Greyhound Park. That organization also contributed to both sides of the aisle, with a $1,000 donation to Democrat Peter Burling and $250 to Sylvia Larsen. That track also sent $1,000 checks to the senatorial campaigns of Harry Haytayan, Robert Clegg and John Lyons, in addition to $250 to Sen. Chuck Morse.

Gaming advocate and Senate President Eaton also received $1,000 from Keelan in September, and through his aide, Jay Flanders, reminded the Hinsdale dog track is in his district and he has always been a proponent of video gaming.

"He’s voted for it before and will do so again," Flanders said. "It’s no secret."

And it’s support for Keelan, a Massachusetts resident, who said recent popularity of poker would make the electronic version of the game "very good" for his New Hampshire dog tracks.

"It’s become so popular because a lot of people are following it on TV," he said. "A lot of the charities are doing very well with it and we’re talking about giving 15 percent of the gross to the state."

Supporters say 15 percent, which Keelan’s "experts" tell him would be $2 to $3 million a year, will help fund the state budget, while some lawmakers talk of an anticipated revenue shortfall with a no-new-taxes consensus.

D’Allesandro’s bill would encompass the state’s existing four tracks as well as "grand hotels."

Speculation that New Castle’s Wentworth by the Sea Hotel would be allowed to host video gaming under such a law could be thwarted by the segment of the bill requiring local approval.

New Castle has a zoning ordinance citing "gambling facilities" in a list of other prohibited activities, in addition to a site-plan contract with the hotel that reads, "All uses at the hotel shall comply with the land-use restrictions of the town of New Castle, including the prohibition against gambling facilities."

In Rochester, where dog racing is a part of the annual fair, it’s uncertain if video gaming would be included should D’Allesandro’s bill pass muster.

Fair manager Jim Foss said it has not been discussed during any directors’ meetings.

And in Hampton, Town Manager James Barrington dismisses some locals’ speculation that a hush-hush agreement between the town and a developer might lead to a race track or other gaming facility.

"I can assure you that gambling is not a part of that," said Barrington, who is privy to the pending development deal. "Gambling is not part of what we’re looking at."

That leaves the Seabrook dog track as the Seacoast’s only likely beneficiary of video poker legislation.

To the dogs?

Ed and Bobbi Kelly came down to the Seabrook track from their Phippsburgh, Maine, home Wednesday for one of their half-dozen annual sojourns to wager on the dogs.

They ordered lunch at the track’s Kennel Club and placed bets until their agreed-upon $50 limit expired.

The Kellys love the dogs so much, they once owned a retired Seabrook greyhound, which "would run in the same circles as she ran here," said Ed.

And if video poker came to Seabrook, the Kellys would play that, too.

"Why not?" Ed said. "I don’t see the big deal about gambling."

But others do.

Seabrook Police Chief David Currier has joined ranks with the state’s Police Chiefs Association in opposing more gaming in the state.

Still, he calls the Seabrook dog track "a good neighbor," a big taxpayer, and no more of a drain on police resources than any other Seabrook establishment.

If D’Allesandro’s bill passes, Currier said he’d want to learn more about the benefits of video gaming and suggests the town should receive a cut of the earnings, beyond the state’s proposed 15 percent.

Currier said he’d also like to know more about the "negative effects."

Rubens can recite negative effects of gambling at length. As it pertains to video poker and New Hampshire, the former N.H. senator and director of the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling said residents should be concerned about the "tribal gaming loophole," federal law allowing the establishment of casinos, by recognized Indian tribes in states where video gaming is legalized.

"The state does not have a choice," he said. "This is what happened in Connecticut."

The gambling opponent cites studies showing brain images of problem gamblers as the same as cocaine addicts, and names video slot machines as the most addictive.

"You play fast, you play alone, and it’s extremely quick, which is why 80 percent of gambling revenue is from slot machines," Rubens said. "The insidious thing about this is that the state doubles the baseline rate of addiction within a 50-mile radius when people become addicted to gambling."

Gov. Lynch sends a recurring and noncommittal message about video gaming legislation through his spokesperson Pamela Walsh.

"He would have to see convincing evidence that it could be done without harm to the quality of life in New Hampshire," Walsh said.

Sen. Hassan echoes the governor’s sentiment.

"As a general matter, I do not believe that gambling will provide a net revenue increase to this state when the economic and social costs of gambling are considered," she said. "However, if supporters of video poker and expanded gambling demonstrate to me that my concerns in these areas are unfounded, if they demonstrate to me that gambling will provide net revenue and increased employment in the state and they provide me with a realistic plan to address the social problems caused by gambling, I will consider it."

Sen. Fuller Clark takes a firm stance in opposition.

"This is something I’m not interested in supporting," she said. "I’m concerned that (by allowing) video gaming at race tracks, it’s only a matter of time before it will be allowed in other parts of the state."

Clark said had she been offered any campaign contributions from gaming interests, she "would not have taken it."

Paul Holloway, a Rye resident, auto dealer and member of the state’s Lottery Commission, said because video gaming bills have never been approved, the issue hasn’t made it to his board, which would oversee any legalized video gaming.

"So for me to talk about it would be wrong," he said.

The Kellys point to state-operated lotteries and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Nicholas Janetos cites the number of times he and his brother have been lucky with the dogs.

"Never," he said.

Source: Portsmouth Herald