Franklin's first - VFW Post among early adopters in state to get keno equipment

By THOMAS P. CALDWELL, LACONIA DAILY SUN

FRANKLIN — Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1698 will be among the first in the state to have a keno installation.

The local post voted Wednesday night whether to offer keno, and Quartermaster Harry Snyder reported, “It went.”

“They’re picking up the application today, and we’ll get it in whenever,” Snyder said. “I think we’ll be the first in the state.”

Maura McCann of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission confirmed, “Franklin is going to be where keno equipment is going to be installed first. It’s a nice group of businesses there, so that’s where we’re starting with the installation of equipment. The VFW will be one of the places in Franklin, but it won’t be the only one.”

McCann added, “The on-sale date is Dec. 15, regardless of where the businesses are.”

The on-sale date is when keno goes live across the state.

The New Hampshire Legislature approved the game as a way of helping to pay for full-time kindergarten at public schools. The legislation provides $1,100 per full-time kindergarten student, beginning July 1, 2018.

To play keno, people select from 80 numbers on a card similar to a bingo card, and a computer generates 20 random numbers to determine which ones are winners.

Gaming establishments pay a $500 application fee and earn 8 percent of the income from keno bets. One percent of the income will support research, prevention, intervention, and treatment for problem gamblers, with the rest, minus administrative costs, going toward full-time kindergarten.

McCann said the majority of cities in New Hampshire do their balloting on Nov. 7, but Franklin’s elections are a month earlier. Towns will not vote on keno until their town meetings in 2018.

“With keno recruitment, we touched base with approximately 100 places in New Hampshire that are interested in offering the game, and we had meetings with some of them. Some also have dates scheduled,” McCann said. “Ten percent have provided the application and licensing fee.”