North Jersey continues to beat a dead horse. A referendum four years ago would have allowed casino gaming outside Atlantic City. That effort lost, with almost 80 percent of voters saying no.
Yet the idea still lives, according to the Associated Press.
In January, a handful of state legislators reintroduced bills from 2016. They have no plans to advance the proposals right now, but they want them primed and ready to go, in case Atlantic City takes a nosedive again.
“We want to see Atlantic City succeed,” said Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, a northern New Jersey Democrat and former Atlantic City casino executive. “These bills are in case Atlantic City gets into trouble. The signal it sends is that we’re watching carefully to see if we need to act on this. But not at this time—I want to make that clear.”
Four years ago, Atlantic City had witnessed several casino closures, hurt by a faltering economy and competition from nearby states. The closings cost the region some 11,000 jobs.
The referendum rationale went like this: North Jersey gamblers lost their money to casinos in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, so open casinos at the Meadowlands, and those gamblers will return.
But casino interests in Atlantic City and New York funded an effective lobbying and publicity campaign against the ballot question, in which voters were asked to support two casinos in North Jersey.
Bill Cortese Jr. was the director of that effort, called “Trenton’s Bad Bet.” He said the resurfacing of the bills comes as no surprise. But since 2016, Atlantic City’s casino market has stabilized with the opening of Hard Rock and Ocean.
“The jobs and the growth that has been added since then, probably north of 7,000 jobs and millions in revenue, is something we can be proud of,” he said. “But there are still a good number of people in Trenton that still want to push for casinos in north Jersey.”
State Senate President Steve Sweeney, from South Jersey, said none of the reintroduced bills will advance through the legislature. “Atlantic City is doing very well right now; we’re not going to reverse it,” Sweeney said.
Jeff Gural, who operates the Meadowlands and has partnered with Hard Rock International on a future casino project at the Meadowlands, did not ask lawmakers to bring back the bills this year.
And he won’t until casinos open in or near New York City.
“I am prepared to wait until the three downstate casinos open in New York and see how people living in northern New Jersey feel about paying the toll to drive over the George Washington Bridge to gamble,” he said. “My guess is they will not be happy.”
