North Jersey casinos seem far away

The Senate president said he doesn’t see people voting again to see if they allow casinos near NYC.

US.- Steve Sweeney, New Jersey’s Senate president, said that he doesn’t believe that the state would ask voters if they want casinos near New York City anytime soon. Sweeney told press that he doesn’t think the state Legislature would put voters through another referendum in 2018 or 2019.

New Jersey voters rejected a ballot question to authorise two new casinos in the northern part of the state two years ago, and according to the law, 2018 is the earliest year that proponents could push again for a referendum. Multiple reports estimate that Sands Bethlehem Casino resort would lose players in New York players find a closer place to bet than Lehigh Valley. “I don’t see it anytime soon, if ever,” said Sweeney.

Jeff Gural, owner of the Meadowlands Racetrack, the facility where a new casino would rise, said that he’s okay with waiting five or more years to see if voters approve the project or not. “I don’t want them to put this on the ballot again until we know it’s going to win. If it loses again, it will never happen,” he said.

“However long I have to wait, I’ll wait. As soon as New York opens the three downstate casinos, the argument will no longer be about saving Atlantic City. New York and New Jersey will need revenue after this federal tax bill passes, and the one thing a Meadowlands casinos would do is send $500 million a year to the state,” Gural added, and said that the next referendum should leave help for Atlantic City out of the question, as it is “doing fine on its own.”