Looks like New Jersey is on the move!
from the NorthJersey.com 5/4/2012
I warned you here two months ago that “budget season” would dominate Trenton statehouse politics for quite some time, at the expense of almost everything else – including efforts to legalize online gaming in New Jersey.
But the state Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee will finally hold a hearing on the bill on Thursday – along with bills related to allowing simulcast betting at the currently-dormant American Dream Meadowlands entertainment and shopping complex; bingo licensing; and use of handheld mobile devices to place bet at state racetracks.
This hearing is a followup to one in March that produced an interesting result.
A prominent state Constitutional expert testified that day that the Legislature did not need voter approval to pass a bill permitting online gaming (at this point, not just online poker but even online slots or roulette – we’ll see if that broad interpretation makes it to the finish line, however). But the Assembly committee still did not vote on the matter, instead elected to “digest” the information.
That threw a monkey wrench into the goals of state Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, who already got a parallel bill through a state Senate committee. With the Assembly not even through a committee vote, online gaming was pushed to the backburner.
That has, not surprisingly, left Lesniak frustrated. His latest vent here reprises gripes that Governor Christie is dragging his feet on internet wagering and on sports betting due to political reasons.
Such needling isn’t necessarily good for online betting supporters. Christie always has seemed lukewarm at best on such matters as it is, so he wouldn’t lose any sleep, it seems, on seeing gambling issues languish.
But this is Jersey, don’t forget – blunt talk is not foreign to politicians, and Christie and Lesniak battle one day and collaborate the next. For instance, the tax breaks that Christie lauds for getting the $2.4 billion Revel casino finished in Atlantic City last month was a Lesniak-sponsored bill.
For whatever reason, Christie seems reluctant to show his cards on gambling matters. He’ll have to make some decisions eventually – but maybe not until this fall, if the state Senate and Assembly don’t send him a revised online gaming bill by the time they take July and August off as their long summer break.
AI
