NJ plans vote on expanding casinos beyond Atlantic City

State Sen. President Steve Sweeney has resurrected a legislation that calls for a statewide referendum on whether two new casinos should open doors in North Jersey, his office announced on Friday.

To help with the gambling industry, lawmakers have created a plan to allow for casinos outside of Atlantic City.

For the month of November, operators of online gambling in the state of New Jersey were able to earn $13.2 million. Hard Rock International and the Meadowlands Racetrack unveiled plans in June for a $1 billion casino at the sports complex, next to the stadium where the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants play.

A key element of expanding casinos to northern New Jersey is having them pay a much higher tax rate than the 8 percent the Atlantic City casinos pay.

“This wasn’t done just for Hard Rock”, he said.

When land-based and online revenues are combined, however, New Jersey’s overall gambling industry actually saw a slight 0.9% increase in year-over-year revenues.

For the 10 years that follow, the amount sent to Atlantic City would decrease by 3 percent a year and the amount sent to counties and municipalities would increase by 3 percent a year.

In the meantime, the Garden State’s eight brick-and-mortar casinos collected $191.1 million in revenues, down 1.4% on last year’s figure.

The Assembly bill would send 35 percent to Atlantic City to compensate for its anticipated losses, with 63 percent being divided as follows: one half to programs for senior citizens and the disabled, as is now done with casino taxes, and half for state aid to each county and municipality for property-tax relief for senior citizens and the disabled.

So far this year, the casinos have won $2.37 billion, a decrease of 7.1 percent from the first 11 months of 2014.

“The question of gaming outside of Atlantic City has always been debated; now is the time for the voters to decide”, Sweeney said.

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