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Referendum to Expand Casino Gambling in North Jersey Seems Hopeless

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The referendum to expand casino gambling in North Jersey is speculated to have a landslide defeat. Last year, New Jersey leaders in both houses of legislature pressed to place a question on November’s ballot, asking voters whether to allow two casinos to be built in North Jersey.

The referendum to expand casino gambling in North Jersey is speculated to have a landslide defeat. Last year, New Jersey leaders in both houses of legislature pressed to place a question on November’s ballot, asking voters whether to allow two casinos to be built in North Jersey. Currently, the state constitution allows casino gambling only in Atlantic City. Atlantic City was once the casino gambling mecca of the East Coast. Eager for a share of the tax revenue, neighboring states began opening their own gambling halls. Now casino revenues in New Jersey have tumbled by more than half, after climaxing at $5.2 billion in 2006. As per the NY Times, analysts now consider the Northeast casino market as saturated. Between Washington DC and Maine, today there are about 30 casinos, racetrack slot parlors and tribal gambling operations, and there is more in the making. In the past two years, five casinos in New Jersey have closed amid the competition, costing NJ thousands of jobs. 

Supporters of the casino expansion claim that Pennsylvania and New York have stolen billions of dollars in gaming revenue that should have belonged to NJ. They contend that building new casinos would bring back the money and provide hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Atlantic City and finance other state programs in need. New York real estate tycoon Jeff Gural, who owns two casinos in NYS, is among the proponents for the measure, and for the marketing campaign “Our Turn NJ”.  

Mr. Gural claims new casinos in North Jersey would not hurt Atlantic City, but rather tap into Manhattan residents and tourists heading to casinos in Pennsylvania and slot machine racetracks in Queens and Yonkers. Mr. Gural, who operates the Meadowlands Racetrack and hopes to build a full-scale casino there, contributed $5 million to the campaign. Another notable supporter, who also contributed $5 million to the measure, is Paul Fireman. Mr. Fireman wishes to build a $4.6 billion gambling resort with a 95-story tower on the waterfront at Jersey City’s southern edge, near the 160-acre golf course that he presently operates. Unfortunately for them, the campaign has little chance of being passed and has failed to sway voters amid the state’s financial problems, the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal and ensuing lack of confidence in local politicians.

Opponents of the amendment warn that expanding casino gambling would be “another bad deal for taxpayers”, and launched the ad campaign, “Trenton’s Bad Bet”. Among the noteworthy antagonists, is Malaysian billionaire K. T. Lim who contributed $8 million to the opposition’s campaign. Mr. Lim controls the competing Montreign casino resort being built near Monticello, NY, and Queens’s Resorts World casino at Aqueduct Racetrack.

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

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