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New Jersey Gaming Industry Bigwigs Converge in Atlantic City

Posted on August 9th, 2010

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Friday, August 6, marked the start of a summit attended by the who’s who of the gaming world in the state of New Jersey. The conference, held at the Atlantic City Convention Center, aims to bring together New Jersey’s major players in the gaming business to talk about the state of the industry, particularly Atlantic City’s casinos, which are right now in a precarious situation earnings-wise, as well as the horse racing industry in northern New Jersey, which has turned shaky despite its glorious past.

The conference is eld amidst certain political maneuvers which may have a huge effect on the industry. During the last week of July, a plan concocted by the state’s Governor Chris Christie has kept the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Delaware on their toes and was finally made public by the governor himself. Specific points of the governor’s plan include a setting up of an Atlantic City Tourism District which would be controlled by the state.

This tourism authority would be in charge of, among other responsibilities, casino regulation streamlining, a better branding strategy for the city and caring for revenue that has been amassed by the city’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. The planned tourism district of the Governor will also be a topic of the summit attended by local organized labor representatives, economists and other heads of New Jersey industry.

Atlantic City shareholders, including the city’s mayor Lorenzo Langford and the city’s Chamber of Commerce have expressed support to the governor’s proposal. Also in attendance for the conference are state senator Paul Sarlo, who was quoted in saying that he would like to keep income in the state, plus New Jersey’s proximity to New York would make it an ideal place to build more casinos within the state rather than in other states. The state overseeing authority would also be in charge of developing more attractions in Atlantic City. State legislature would still need to approve the mayor’s plan though, in the coming fall, which allows for the summit to take the plan as one of its discussion points.

Aside from Governor Christie’s plans, another point of interest in the summit is a bill proposed by New Jersey Senator Raymond Lesniak for intrastate internet gaming. Although a senate committee has already voted out the bill, the state’s assembly will still have to discuss it. Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association Chairman Joe Brennan noted that there could be a sharing of revenues from north and south, wherein licensed intrastate gaming outfits could be utilized for funding racetracks like Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands Racetrack located in northern New Jersey. As Lesniak’s senatorial term will still not be over in 2010, his bill still has chance to be further discussed, and attendees of the summit continue to weigh on the bill’s merits, indicating that it may have promising prospects.

With the possible formation of an intrastate framework for internet gaming, one of the summit’s attendees, Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Chairman Joe Brennan was quoted in saying, “The bigger issue was North Jersey versus South Jersey economic developments issues. The question: How do we save the horse racing industry in the North and preserve the gaming enterprises in the South?”

The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the developments in Lesniak’s bill, and the paper exposes another angle: Brennan’s iMEGA has also been persistently pushing for sports betting to be legalized in New Jersey for additional revenue. To show that’s it stands by the bill, iMEGA commissioned consulting firm Econsult to study the senator’s proposal which in turn claimed that the addition of intrastate internet gambling would open up an additional 1,900 jobs in the state. Moreover, the study also revealed that Lesniak’s bill could bring in a maximum of $250 million in gross gaming revenue per year, as well as a maximum of $55 million in state tax revenue annually. Brennan, in a press release in June, stated that legislators should consider the bill as “being an engine for real job creation and attracting investment, and the opportunity to be the global hub for a high-tech industry.” Among speakers during the summit’s opening were Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Mark Juliano and the Poker Voters of America’s Melanie Brenner.