A New Jersey Assembly committee has cleared a bill designed to keep Atlantic City casino owners from closing their properties and then later re-opening them under better labor conditions.
The bill was specifically drafted to address the closing of the Trump Taj Mahal casino in October. Owner Carl Icahn—President-elect Donald Trump no longer had a stake in the casino—closed the property in the midst of a long labor dispute. That led to fears he would try to re-open the casino as a non-union shop.
The bill would disqualify a casino license applicant from holding a casino license for five years after “substantially” closing a casino. The bill was approved by the state Assembly’s Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee and now will go to the full Assembly for a vote. The state Senate approved the bill in October.
“Essentially what we’re trying to do is prevent casino owners from manipulating the licensing system and abusing rank-and-file casino workers,” Assemblyman John Burzichelli told the Press of Atlantic City. “Given Atlantic City’s struggles, the last thing we want to see is a casino owner taking advantage of bankruptcy laws and pocketing a license or, even worse, stripping workers of benefits and denying them a fair wage because they couldn’t come to the table and strike an agreement.”
Governor Chris Christie is likely to veto the bill.
