Both sides in the debate over whether to expand casino gambling in New Jersey outside of Atlantic City—which voters will decide in November—have started taking their case to voters through extensive advertising campaigns.
Those in favor of expanding casinos to northern New Jersey gained some support for state Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, the chairman of the Assembly’s Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee. Caputo is a former casino executive in Atlantic City who never got a promotion.
“Powerful and well-heeled political, corporate and labor interests outside New Jersey will spend whatever it takes to defeat the Referendum for North Jersey casinos in order to keep billions of dollars of our gaming revenue flowing out of New Jersey and into their pockets,” Caputo said in a press release. “They like things exactly the way they are, and will use innuendo and outlandish accusations to convince New Jersey taxpayers to vote against our own best interests because it benefits them, and that offends me.”
Voters will be asked to decide whether two new casinos can be built in northern New Jersey. Though the referendum doesn’t say where the casinos will be built, proposals for casinos at The Meadowlands Racetrack and in Jersey City are considered the leading contenders.
Supporters say the state needs to build the casinos to win back casino revenue lost to new casinos in neighboring states. Opponents say the new casinos will just further cannibalize the Atlantic City market and lead to more casino closings there.
Voters in the northern part of the state are already seeing and advertising push from both sides.
Two organizations, No North Jersey Casino Coalition and Trenton’s Bad Bet, are also fighting against expansion. The groups are not required to disclose all of their backers, but previous reports have said that groups representing casino interest in both Pennsylvania and New York are supporting the effort to defeat the referendum.
“They are spending a heck of a lot of money, and that fact alone should make voters wonder just who these people are,” Caputo said in his statement.
Polls suggest that the referendum will likely fail with voters, A Fairleigh Dickinson University study published this summer found that only 35 percent of New Jerseyans support the referendum.
