Analysts have said gambling in northern New Jersey would create competition for Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, where table games are popular among many patrons bused in from the NY metro area.
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Christie joined with Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto to announce the deal Monday. Any measure not passed today must be reintroduced when the new legislative session begins later this week. It also would require that both of them be owned by existing Atlantic City casino operators. Atlantic City casino license holders would have six months to submit proposals to build the new casinos, and their plans must call for investing at least $1 billion in each facility. Without consensus in both houses, lawmakers will need to reach a compromise in the next session and approve it with a three-fifths majority to get it on the November 2016 ballot. That help could come in the form of revenue from hefty taxes the new casinos would have to pay.
“Inaction should not be an option”, Christie said in a statement. Prieto had expressed concerns that one or both of the projects approved under the Senate bill would be “slots in a box” – shorthand for a gambling site that offers few amenities beyond thousands of slot machines.
“New Jersey casino workers and the industry here in Atlantic City have given much to this state over the years”, said McDevitt, whose union represents almost 10,000 Atlantic City workers.
Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto are pushing competing bills that differ on who could own the new casinos and how much tax revenue would return to Atlantic City. “Sweeney’s bill clearly takes into account the damage these new casinos will do to Atlantic City”.
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“It’s really all about putting people to work and putting money back into Atlantic City”, said Scala, a commissioner on the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority.
