New Jersey Gambling Casinos to Reopen After 3 Day Shutdown
After a three-day shut-down, gambling casino owners in New Jersey plan to reopen their doors on Saturday after the state Legislature approved a budget agreement. The Senate passed the budget compromise by a 23-17 vote early Saturday and the General Assembly followed with a 44-35 vote, according to the government's Web site.
The compromise was reached Thursday after six days of contentious partisan debate. A crisis ensued on June 30 when lawmakers failed to adopt a new budget by the constitutional deadline. As a result, the state closed all "non essential" government offices, including the Casino Control Commission which is responsible for regulating gambling in Atlantic City.
The city's 12 casinos were forced to close their gaming floors Wednesday for the first time since they began 24-hour operations in 1993, affecting 46,000 casino and hotel employees and resulting in millions of dollars in lost profits and tax revenue for the state. New Jersey Assemblyman Bill Baroni said lawmakers of both parties planned to work diligently Friday to approve the state's budget.
"We've got to get this done," Baroni told CNN. "Every legislator in the state wants to get this done so we can give New Jerseyans their state back. This has been an unmitigated disaster for the state."
According to Baroni, New Jersey earns an average of $1.3 million per day in gambling tax revenue, an amount that does not include sales tax and other revenue received from Atlantic City's gaming and tourism industry.
"When all of this is over, the state will have lost tens of millions of dollars because of the casino shutdown," Baroni said.
The government shutdown was also expensive for casino owners. While official numbers are not yet available, Casino Control Commission spokesman Dan Heneghan said Atlantic City's casinos earned an average profit of $16.3 million per day in July 2005, and that this year's profits would likely be a similar amount.
July 8, 2006
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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