North New Jersey casino expansion: State Senate President Steve Sweeney wants residents to vote regarding the problem in 2016 november.
North New Jersey wants to provide Atlantic City a run for its money. And brand New Jerseyans may get the right yet to vote for casino expansion beyond the Boardwalk.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney has reintroduced legislation calling for a referendum on whether two new casinos should be built in the north area of the state, over the water from brand New York City , breaking AC’s longstanding monopoly.
The bill proposes that the vote that is state-wide the issue take place in November 2016.
The question of North Jersey casino expansion is muted before. Atlantic City has suffered from the legalization of casino gaming within abutting states, and increased competition was a factor that is major four Atlantic City casino closures in the last two years.
Pennsylvania legalized casino gaming in 2007, and recently overtook its neighbor in gaming revenue. Meanwhile, New York State and Massachusetts have both opted to license their casinos that are first the emergence of the new areas will undoubtedly damage the New Jersey market.
Strategic Importance
But North Jersey’s proximity to Manhattan as well as the New York greater area that is metropolitan it a strategically advantageous location for casinos, which Sweeney believes would lure droves of gamblers across the Hudson.
‘The question of gaming outside of Atlantic City is definitely debated,’ Sweeney said. ‘ Now is the right time for the voters to decide. Expanding gambling to North Jersey is the best method to revitalize an industry that is important to the state’s economy to ensure that we can compete with neighboring states, generate the revenue needed seriously to revive Atlantic City and contribute to economic growth.’
The bill would make sure that no casinos that are new be built within 75 miles of Atlantic City and that casinos into the north would pay a much higher tax on the gaming revenues compared to the eight per cent currently paid by Atlantic City casinos.
High Taxes
Rough Rock International and the Meadowlands Racetrack, which want to build a casino in East Rutherford, home to the New York Giants and New York Jets, have offered to pay as much as 55 percent in taxes.
Forty-nine percent with this taxation revenue would then visit Atlantic City to pay for the inevitable loss of business, while another 49 percent would visit counties and municipalities, and the remaining two percent would gain nj-new Jersey’s horse industry that is racing.
Opinions remain deeply divided on the issue, particularly with Atlantic City itself.
‘North Jersey gambling enterprises would be disastrous for our local economy, driving jobs and investment away from our region,’ stated former mayor James Whelan on Twitter this week.
Recent financial reports recommend that AC is bouncing back and that the city’s casino earnings were up 55.9 per cent in Q3 this year. However, Moody’s Investment Analysts warned that this was more likely a reflection associated with recent casino closures, which have boosted revenues for people who stay. Moody’s said it expected further closures in the coming year.
Sheldon Adelson Confirmed as New Las Vegas Review-Journal Owner
Who is The Boss? Apparently, it is now Sheldon Adelson, who has assumed control regarding the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper. (Image: politico.com)
Sheldon Adelson has been unmasked once the new owner for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, having been exposed by the newspaper that is very had anonymously purchased a week earlier.
As reported here earlier this week, LVRJ staff were puzzled and a little dismayed to understand last Thursday that the newspaper had been sold to a mystery owner for $140 million.
All they were told ended up being that a newly incorporated company, Information + Media Capital Group, was now during the helm and they ought to ask no more questions.
‘They want one to focus on your jobs … don’t concern yourself with who they’re,’ was the pep talk offered by one Michael Schroeder, a News + Media Capital Group supervisor during the first staff meeting beneath the ownership that is new.
And while Schroeder assured staff that their editorial liberty would not be compromised by their new mystery owner, a page that is front on the sale that evening was redacted at Schroeder’s request to remove references towards the proprietor’s anonymity.
Calls for Transparency
It was not just LVRJ’s people who were alarmed, as other journalists began calling for transparency too, and the tale spread as speculation grew. The sale of a newspaper to an owner or organization that refuses to be identified is unprecedented in media history as Esther Thorson, research director for the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism, told the Los Angeles Times.
Moreover, the premium price compensated by the buyer suggested they were interested in buying governmental clout, rather than a considered financial investment, which made it all the more important that their identification and affiliations be disclosed.
The fact that LVRJ is the dominant media socket in the swing that is early-voting of Nevada suggested to a lot of that the buyer might be a rich conservative, and Adelson’s name began to be cited by speculative commentators.
Public Statement
Meanwhile, faced with a conundrum, RJ staff did what good journalists do: they began digging for answers. Or as Schroeder had put it, they ‘focused on their jobs.’
Sources eventually revealed that Patrick Dumont, Adelson’s son-in-law and vice that is senior of finance and strategy at Las Vegas Sands Corporation, had brokered the deal between News + Media Capital Group and its particular previous owner, New Media Investment Group.
‘He [Dumont] handles all the investments for your family,’ claimed a source that is lvrj.
For most of the LVRJ staff knew, they could have been risking their jobs by printing the whole tale, but it doesn’t appear to be the actual situation. Instead, the Adelson family made a formal announcement of the ownership of the magazine just hours after the tale broke.
Meanwhile, whatever Adelson’s particular explanation for getting his arms in the LVRJ, be it business or politics, their position at the helm might well sit uneasily with most journalists. Adelson already has newspapers in Israel, but he is also had a tendency to sue journalists, separately, for libel within the past.
One such journalist was current LVRJ columnist John L. Smith, whoever 8-year-old daughter had been enduring from brain cancer at that time of the litigation. His daughter ultimately survived, but Smith was pushed into bankruptcy.
Adelson eventually decided to dismiss the full case with prejudice, after Smith’s attorney effectively argued that the case ended up being not about defamation, but about Adelson making an exemplory instance of those who crossed him.
The suit was at reaction to a probing book that included information Adelson had considered defamatory, in place of any such thing Smith had written at the Review-Journal. It will likely be interesting to see how that relationship unfolds with this particular saga that is new.
RAWA Dead in the Water for 2015
Representative Jason Chaffetz, whom introduced RAWA to your House and floundered during a recently available congressional hearing on online gaming. (Image: nbcnews.com)
The Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) has unsuccessful to attach itself to an omnibus spending bill that would have seen it sail through Congress.
The bill proposes a federal ban on all forms of online gambling with the exception of horseracing and fantasy sports.
RAWA supporters had anticipated that they could tag the bill onto the must-pass Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, a monstrous 2007-page little bit of legislation that largely outlines federal fiscal outlays between now plus the end of 2016.
A decade ago in such a way, they hoped, RAWA would be passed into law with as little fuss as possible, much like the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was slipped onto the end of legislation designed to regulate port security.
It was the tactic that is same in reality, used in 2014, when RAWA also missed the omnibus. Fortunately for America’s online gambling industry, it may have to wait a time that is long the next one to arrive. 12 months, to be precise.
And since RAWA in its current kind is very unlikely to be accepted by both chambers, sneaking onto that bus without having a ticket perhaps remains its most useful choice.
RAWA Flounders
The legislation is unpopular with many lawmakers since the Sheldon Adelson-backed bill smacks of business cronyism.
Meanwhile, lots of the Republican mega-donor’s normal allies into the GOP decry it as an unconstitutional breach of this Tenth Amendment that seeks to stymie states’ rights, while Democrats who might normally disapprove of online gambling are loathe to install themselves to a policy produced by Adelson.
A recent initiative to drum up support to push RAWA throughout the line failed when Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and Southern Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson exhorted fellow attorneys general to countersign a letter baking RAWA.
Only eight AG’s were prepared to place their name to the initiative.
Controversially, one of those was Nevada AG Adam Laxalt, whose 2014 election campaign received funding from Adelson. Laxalt ended up being heavily criticized by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval for his actions, and numerous felt he had betrayed the Silver State, which opted to legalize and regulate poker that is online belated 2013.
Adelson Re-raise
Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), whom introduced RAWA to the home in the beginning in the year, fared no better at A house hearing that is recent of legislation, which he himself chaired, with the somewhat charged title: ‘A Casino in Every Smartphone: Law Enforcement Implications.’
Chaffetz had presumably hoped it will be sufficient to trot every tired cliché of the anti-online gambling movement, with lazy recommendations to terrorism, money-laundering and child corruption, except it didn’t quite work out that way, and also the arguments against regulation took a drubbing.
For RAWA, it appears, the chips are down.
Except Adelson has simply tossed in a reraise that is massive.
His purchase of the nevada Review-Journal may offer him clout that is extra his bid to gain political capital and shape viewpoints on online gambling in the gaming money of America.