The New Hampshire Supreme Court sided with state regulators and upheld the lottery commission’s decision to revoke Andy Sanborn’s charitable gaming license.
The court also backed the denial of licenses to an out-of-state buyer who wanted to purchase his now-shuttered Concord Casino along with approved plans to open a new casino in East Concord.
The ruling ends a dispute over whether the New Hampshire lottery commission acted in bad faith in how it handled the sale of the casino following its finding that Sanborn was unsuitable to be associated with charitable gaming. For a sale to go through, both Sanborn and the buyer would have needed valid gaming licenses issued by the lottery commission.
Sanborn’s license was revoked after an investigation found he “unlawfully obtained” nearly $1 million in federal COVID funding from the Small Business Administration and used the money to buy personal items, including race cars for himself and his wife.
If the sale had gone through, Sanborn would still have some “personal associations” to Concord Casino on South Main Street in Concord, which is owned and operated by his Win Win Win (WWW) LLC.
“It was not unlawful or unreasonable for the Commission to consider Sanborn’s continued association with WWW after the sale under the terms of the proposed transaction as negatively impacting the buyer’s and WWW’s suitability to be associated with charitable gaming,” the justices wrote.
Under the purchase and sale agreement, Sanborn would have leased the space to the buyer after the sale. He would also have received payments based on the casino’s earnings for several years and would have collected proceeds from any future sale of the business unless certain conditions were met.
“We are pleased the Supreme Court has affirmed the Commission’s decisions in this matter, as those decisions were made in furtherance of the Commission’s responsibility to ensure that all charitable gaming operators meet the requirements of New Hampshire law,” Attorney General John Formella said in a statement.
