New Hampshire has repealed a law that saw residents paying taxes on lottery wins over $600. In 2009, New Hampshire legislators imposed this tax which saw all winners handing over 10% to the state. However, a bill that went into effect on Monday had the tax repealed after it was signed by Governor John Lynch.

The reason for the repeal was the fact that the tax was hurting racetrack revenues and affecting the sale of lottery tickets, and this could clearly be seen through statistics from the past two years. House Majority Leader, DJ Bettencourt said: “It was definitely a losing proposition. This was hurting our cross border advantage.”

Ticket sales dropped 5.82% since 2009, and lottery executive, Charlie McIntyre noted that “we were up and Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont were all up.”

“To me,” he said, “that was the statistic that was most telling.”

Border towns were the most affected, according to the executive, with sales in towns such as Salem and Pelham reporting a drop of as much as 10%.

In addition, track revenues were also affected. “We saw about an 8% reduction in our overall handle and revenue in the areas of charitable gaming, bingo and racing,” said McIntyre. “We had people who packed up and moved away to a more favorable state.”

To celebrate the repeal, the lottery commission threw a “Tax Repeal Tea Party” at its headquarters on Monday. In addition, a new $10 instant ticket – the $250,000 Tax Free ticket – was launched from Monday, with a buy-one-get-one-free promotion. The tickets go on sale statewide from June 6th.

McIntyre said: “It was great news”.

The Poker Players Alliance has upped its lobbying activities by declaring May 24th, 2011 a National Poker Lobbying Day. The grassroots group, which boasts over one million members, has called on everyone to make an “emergency fly-in” into Washington DC and arrange to meet with legislators and members of Congress. State directors for the PPA – around 30 in total – will meet with specific lawmakers and request that they do everything in their power to legalize and regulate online poker in the United States.

“The PPA will be providing the tools and information you need to arrange and execute those meetings either in Washington D.C. or back home in your congressional delegations district offices,” said the group in a press release, sent to all members by the chairman of the PPA, Alfonse D’Amato.

The group then provides a link for members to meet their specific Congress representatives, as well as instructions on how to request and successfully secure a meeting.

“We encourage every PPA member to meet with their members of Congress on May 24th and request that if you secure a meeting to please email the national office at dcflyin@theppa.org and let us know the details,” it continued.

The PPA has been active since Black Friday when clampdowns were brought on top online poker sites Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and Pokerstars shut down by FBI. Members and the general online poker public, which consists of around 10 million Americans, have been asked to call, write and email their representatives. The Take Action link on the PPA site continues to urge members to contact the Department of Justice and make their opinions known about the online poker crackdown.

The politician who is most closely associated with efforts to have online poker legalized in the United States, Rep. Barney Frank, has lashed out at the federal government for wasting precious time and resources to target poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars as Poker stars closed to US players.

Frank, who has worked tirelessly – albeit unsuccessfully - over the years to push for legislation to see poker regulated in the country, spoke to the legal publication, the Hill this week, soon after the FBI announced the indictments against 11 top online poker personalities on Friday.

“What an incredible waste of resources!” said Frank to his interviewer. He said that the authorities should rather go after those who were responsible for the country’s ongoing mortgage crisis and for getting the US into one of the worst financial depressions in decades.

“Go after the people responsible for empty houses, not full houses,” he said. “I’m not saying violate the law, but to give this priority in law enforcement over some other things I think is a terrible idea and I think the administration is wrong on this.”

Frank hopes that the vacuum left by the latest crackdown may be filled by introducing online poker through a bill that he proposed together with Congressman John Campbell, similar to the one that failed to make its way through last year. The bill has the potential to set up a federally licensed poker platform for online gambling in the United States and could be pushed forward due to the recent events in the online poker industry.