Home / Poker News March 2011 / New Jersey poker bill shot down by Gov. Chris Christie
New Jersey poker bill shot down by Gov. Chris Christie
Posted by: Randy Williams - Sat, 2011-03-05 01:19
New Jersey’s much-hyped
online poker bill is officially dead, and the smoking gun is in Gov. Chris Christie’s hand. The governor vetoed the bill, thus denying the opportunity for the Garden State to become the Silicon Valley of the internet gambling age. The Governor’s decision – for which Caesar’s Entertainment is likely to blame, according to State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, the main promoter of the bill – has also cut thousands of jobs and the prospects of never before dreamed-of development for the state.
Lesniak said that the Nevada-based Caesar’s Entertainment was obviously behind the Governor’s discouraging veto, as it was not interested in promoting legal online gambling and poker on a state level. Caesar’s have spent tons of money lobbying in Washington, and they were not about to accept state-level regulation in the matter, especially when it came under circumstances that were unfavorable to them.
Given the decidedly discouraging nature of Christie’s veto, promoters of the bill do not really see any chance for it to be revived in the near future.
In his veto address Christie motivated his decision trough the fact that gambling, in its current form, restricted within Atlantic City was aimed at appealing to tourists and giving the local economy a thrust the old-fashioned way. Expanding legal gambling beyond the city limits could potentially jeopardize the current setup, and therefore it would have to be approved by voters through a referendum.
Lesniak called the idea “nonsense”.
Christie had several options on his table: he could sign the bill into law, he could do nothing thus allowing the bill to become law, he could conditionally veto it, sending it back to the assembly with recommendations on what to change in it, or he could veto it outright – the path he eventually chose.
According to Lesniak, the fact that allowing New Jersey to become the first US state to legalize online gambling may cast a shadow over his political career must’ve played a role in Christie decision.
