Four potential buyers for suspended charity casino, lawyer says
Jul. 5—CONCORD — Four parties are interested in buying former state Sen. Andy Sanborn's downtown Concord casino, according to his lawyer, but state lottery officials are skeptical the talks will produce a sale this summer.
The charity casino's license is currently suspended.
According to New Hampshire Lottery Commission documents, one of the potential buyers is Full House Resorts Inc., a Las Vegas-based, publicly traded gambling company that owns seven casinos in five states.
Full House Resorts executives met with lottery staffers in early June, according to documents related to the suspension of Sanborn's casino operator license.
It is not known whether the company is the same one Assistant Attorney General Mark Dell'Orfano referred to at a hearing last month when he said Sanborn's team had told lottery officials about there being "potentially a $30 million deal on the table."
Gregory Albert, an administrative law judge with the Department of Safety, subsequently placed under seal all documents regarding sale proposals Sanborn's lawyers have shared with the lottery commission.
Last December, a different hearing officer suspended Sanborn's charity gambling license after concluding that he deliberately misled federal officials in obtaining an $844,000 COVID-19 relief grant and spent more than 20% of the proceeds to buy three sports cars. He gave one to his wife, House Speaker Pro Tem Laurie Sanborn, R-Bedford.
The ruling by Michael King, who has since retired from state government, gave Sanborn until June 27 to sell the business, Win Win Win LLC, or face a two-year revocation of his license to conduct casino-style charity gambling.
Albert extended the deadline to July 18, though Zachary Hafer, Sanborn's lawyer, already has requested that it be pushed out to the end of September.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer King told Albert during a hearing last month that the state has seen no indication Sanborn is close to pulling off the sale
"In sum, there simply is no evidence that either party intends to close the deal," King said. "Rather, the evidence demonstrates the opposite: the respondent (Sanborn) is hedging its bets and keeping all options open to any potential deal that may come its way."
Zach Hafer, Sanborn's lawyer, said the AG's office has blocked his client from completing these negotiations by refusing to cooperate and trying to "run out the clock" on the deadline to sell.
"Over the last six months, Win Win Win has made every reasonable effort to sell this business and it's been frustrated at every turn by the attorney general," Hafer said.
For example, the AG declined to say whether the next buyer could lose their right to operate for multiple years if the Sanborns are criminally convicted of committing COVID-19 fraud, Hafer said.
"An absolutely critical point (is) no buyer is going to be interested in doing this if they think that the state AG is waiting around the corner with an indictment," Hafer told Albert.
AG John Formella said his office has opened its own criminal probe and also has referred the matter to U.S. Attorney Jane Young, who could bring federal fraud charges.
In a related matter, a Superior Court judge last week dismissed a lawsuit an abutter had brought challenging city approvals Sanborn got to build a bigger charity casino and hotel complex off Loudon Road.
The judge ruled that because the person making the appeal owned property about a mile from the project, she lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.
