Democrats In New Jersey Plan To Launch Casinos Outside Atlantic City
When one spoke of New Jersey’s casino industry one always referred to Atlantic City as some of the biggest casino brands have established casinos in Atlantic City. The gambling laws in New Jersey make it illegal for any casino to operate outside of Atlantic City but all that could change in the coming months as the State Assembly Democrats have put forward a plan to build new casinos outside of Atlantic City.
Atlantic City’s casino industry has struggled for the last 24 months and four out of the twelve casinos in Atlantic City have been forced to shutdown and the remaining eight casinos are also finding it hard to stay afloat.
State gaming analysts believe one of the biggest reasons for this slow down is due to the competition arising from the neighboring states. The democrats want to set up a minimum of two casinos outside of Atlantic City in an effort to stop New Jersey gamblers from traveling out of state.
The proposed bill has to be studied carefully as there are a lot of implications associated with the passing of the bill including a loss of revenue to Atlantic City. If the bill gets approval from the state assembly and senate, voters will then have an opportunity to vote during the 2016 November election as it will feature as one of the ballot questions.
The new law will ensure that these new casinos will be located a minimum of 75 miles away from Atlantic City and the state would be the final decision maker in deciding the final location, tax rates involved and the licensing of table games. The plan will ensure that Atlantic City gets 35 percent of gaming taxes generated for fifteen years and send 63 percent to NGO’s that look after the disabled and seniors. The final two percent would go to the horse betting industry.
The new proposal by the Democratic party has already caused a lot of controversy and opposition. The Republican party are not in favor of moving casinos outside of Atlantic City and believe that this move would only hurt Atlantic City further.
In a statement, Assemblyman Chris Brown, R-Atlantic. said
Whether it’s Sweeney’s 49 percent or Prieto’s 35 percent, no one can honestly believe in the Democrat leadership’s charade that somehow building North Jersey casinos will produce enough revenue to offset the devastation to Atlantic County’s economy and hardworking families.
