NJ voters reject Atlantic City expansion
New Jersey voters struck down a ballot proposal to allow casinos outside Atlantic City.
US.- New Jersey voters rejected the proposal to expand casino gambling facilities to the northern side of the state, outside Atlantic City. According to the numbers, the ballot question failed by more than 1.5 million votes.
According to the Associated Press, the unsuccessful ballot voted yesterday marks the largest margin of defeat for any referendum the state has ever seen. More than 95 percent precincts reported that the question was failing by almost 78 percent to 22 percent.
Even though Gov. Chris Christie had previously said that he would cast his ballot in favour of expanding casinos to the northern part of the state, voters said that they want Atlantic City to maintain its state monopoly on casino gambling. Bill Cortese, executive director of Trenton’s Bad Bet, said: “We are glad to see the overwhelming support across New Jersey opposing casino expansion. We attribute our success to a broad coalition of community leaders, unions, small businesses and residents who are convinced that North Jersey casinos would be a detriment to the entire state.”
On the other hand, Our Turn NJ, a non-profit organisation in favor of the expansion, released a statement that said that they’re disappointed but not surprised by the results. “We have seen for some time now that the people of New Jersey were unhappy with the lack of details on this issue. We do not view the failure to pass Question #1 as a rejection of gaming expansion but as a rejection of our state’s current political climate and a failure to have all the facts presented to them,” they added.
A poll conducted by the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind had revealed last month that 70 percent of the registered voters surveyed oppose to the amendment and only 24 percent of residents supported it. The opposition against the casino legalisation increased 20 percent from June to September, when the institution launched the first poll’s result, showing that 57 percent of voters were against it, whilst 35 percent were in favour.
