U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu complained a year ago that the law was ambiguous and was grabbing legitimate enterprises in its net. He warned that “risk-averse financial institutions will simply choose to block every transaction that may be interpreted or could resemble gambling, whether legal or not.”

Lottery Executive Director Rick Wisler said the problem is definitely affecting lottery sales here, which are down significantly. He said his concerns have been made known to Visa and MasterCard and that those companies say they will review them.

The problem seems to have spread beyond Internet lottery sales. We have been told that even employees at state liquor stores have declined to allow lottery ticket purchases using a bank-issued debit card.

Gambling proponents often cite the New Hampshire Lottery as a viable and reliable generator of public revenues and an example of why it should expand. But if even the sale of a scratch ticket is going to be thwarted by the feds, how do they expect bigger gambling to succeed?