Betting on the Weirs: Council could consider casinos in Laconia

LACONIA — Planning board members took the first steps toward amending the zoning ordinance to allow the operation of casinos in the city on Tuesday night, setting the stage for an important council decision.

Members of the planning board moved forward language for a zoning amendment to allow and regulate the construction and operation of casinos. As it’s written, casinos would only be allowed in certain areas of the Weirs.

While planning board members approved the initial language of the ordinance Tuesday night, the city council will have ultimate decision-making power. They could choose not to take up the issue, to accept it as moved by the planning board, or to amend it as they see fit.

“All we’re looking to do is to add the use of 'casino', which is going to operate games of chance as related to RSA 287-D. The state regulates, obviously, casinos and games of chance that are operated in the state,” Assistant Planning Director Tyler Carmichael said Tuesday. “This would not include your Keno, your lottery, all the stuff that is ancillary. This is for your poker tables, your blackjack, all that good stuff.”

As defined in the language of the zoning ordinance amendment, a casino is any room or structure used for gambling as defined and regulated by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission and pursuant to RSA 287-D. Combinations of lodging, dining and retail could be offered within the same facility.

For approval, applicants seeking to develop a casino must receive a Conditional Use Permit from the planning board and adhere to a list of additional requirements: the development must be approved to operate by the NH Lottery Commission; must be located on parcels within the commercial resort zoning district; must be located on parcels abutting Endicott Street East, Endicott Street North and Weirs Blvd (planning board members later added Lakeside Avenue but restricted entrance from the same to reduce potential traffic congestion); and must not be located on or adjacent to parcels for uses including worship, preschool or kindergarten, elementary and secondary schooling, day care or nurseries and hospital and health care facilities.

“The rationale behind putting it on Endicott East, North and Weirs Boulevard was that those main arteries could accommodate the traffic that would be driven by a facility that we would expect somebody to develop,” Planning Director Rob Mora said.

Additionally, a potential casino must provide one onsite parking space for every 90 square feet of gross floor area, operate gambling only indoors, and must submit traffic management, public safety, infrastructure development and architectural plans to city planners for review and approval.  

Mora said planning department staff came to the figure of one parking spot per 90 square feet by evaluating policies in other municipalities that allow gambling, such as Las Vegas.

“This would be like, if someone was to come in and build an actual casino,” Mora said. “This would not affect the accessory uses of buying a lottery ticket at a gas station or playing Keno at an establishment that has a license from the state that is serving liquor and food.”

The city’s table of permitted uses would be amended to add “casino” under the “recreation/sports/entertainment uses” section. The same would be amended to make casinos permitted by Conditional Use Permit (C) in the Commercial Resort District and not permitted in all other zoning districts. 

“If anybody wants to do a casino, they have to come here and get our approval,” Carmichael said. 

“This is going to go before the city council, and I’m sure at the city council, there’ll be more publicity with regards to a public hearing and I’m sure that we’ll hear from a lot more residents,” board Chair Charlie St. Clair said.

The desire for casino gambling isn’t new in the city — in 2023, City Manager Kirk Beattie told councilors local business owners had inquired about the prospects at city hall. At the time, there weren’t any zones in the city ordinance that explicitly permitted gambling. 

And in September 2023, Weirs Beach business magnate Anthony Santagate told The Laconia Daily Sun he’d be interested in developing a casino on the property that is the current location of The Big House Nightclub.