Mounting Opposition to NJ Casino Expansion
March 2, 2016 11:15 amAtlantic City’s casino industry has experienced falling revenues since reaching a peak of $5.2 billion in 2006, and even the introduction of regulated online gambling in 2013 failed to stem its decline. As a result, the next weapon in New Jersey’s gambling arsenal involves allowing two new casino resorts to be built outside of Atlantic City in the north of the state, as a way of pulling in gamblers from all around the New York area.
Nevertheless, the casino expansion plan continues to draw resistance from various interest groups across New Jersey, and in particular from business owners in Atlantic City, who believe that the proposal will further decimate Atlantic City’s already beleaguered casino industry. Over the past couple of years, for instance, Atlantic City has seen its casinos cut from 12 venues to just 8, which in turn has resulted in more than 8,000 jobs being shed.
Furthermore, Atlantic City casinos generated a total of $2.56 billion for the whole of 2015, down 6.5% from the previous year, and less than half the amount it collected during its peak a decade ago. As far as casino operators, and businesses owners are concerned, allowing expanded casino gambling in the north will sound the final death knell for the resort town.
Amongst the people speaking out against casino expansion in NJ is State Senator Jim Whelan (photo), who this week criticised the proposed bill at the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. During the public hearing, Senator Whelan expressed his view that any casino expansion in the north would be a temporary solution at best to the state’s casino industry problems, and before long casinos in the north would also face the same problems as Atlantic City. As Whelan commented:
“We’re not going to [see] casinos in north Jersey have a 20-25 year monopoly. It will be a matter of years before New York City has casinos in Manhattan or in the Bronx. What Atlantic City is experiencing now, north Jersey will experience at that time.”
In the meantime, another public hearing debate on the bill will take place on March 7th in the Assembly, with the bill subsequently expected to be voted upon in both houses. If approved, it could then be put to a public ballot in November.