North Nj Casino Expansion Back on State’s Agenda

North New Jersey casino expansion: State Senate President Steve Sweeney wants residents to vote in the issue in November 2016.

North New Jersey wants to provide Atlantic City a run for its money. And brand New Jerseyans may yet obtain the right to vote for casino expansion beyond the Boardwalk.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney has reintroduced legislation calling for the referendum on whether two new casinos should be built in the part that is north of state, over the water from brand New York City, breaking AC’s longstanding monopoly.

The bill proposes that a state-wide vote on the issue simply 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 ended up being a major factor in four Atlantic City casino closures into 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 actually both opted to license their casinos that are first the emergence of the new areas will certainly damage the nj-new Jersey market.

Strategic Importance

But North Jersey’s proximity to Manhattan and also the New York greater area that is metropolitan it a strategically beneficial 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 way that is best to revitalize a business that is very important towards the state’s economy to ensure we can compete with neighboring states, generate the revenue needed 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 in the north would pay a much higher taxation on their gaming revenues compared to the eight % presently paid by Atlantic City gambling enterprises.

High Taxes

Complex Rock Overseas while the Meadowlands Racetrack, which want to build a casino in East Rutherford, home to this New York Giants and New York Jets, have wanted to pay as much as 55 percent in taxes.

Forty-nine percent of the income tax 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 benefit nj-new Jersey’s horse industry that is racing.

Opinions remain deeply split in the presssing issue, particularly with Atlantic City itself.

‚North Jersey casinos would be disastrous for our neighborhood economy, driving jobs and investment out of our area,‘ stated mayor that is former Whelan on Twitter this week.

Current financial reports recommend that AC is bouncing back and that the city’s casino earnings were up 55.9 per cent in Q3 this present year. However, Moody’s Investment Analysts warned that this had been more likely a reflection associated with the recent casino closures, which may have boosted revenues for those that stay. Moody’s said it expected further closures in the year that is coming.

Sheldon Adelson Confirmed as Brand New Las Vegas Review-Journal Owner

Who is The Boss? Apparently, it’s now Sheldon Adelson, who has assumed control for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest newsprint. (Image: politico.com)

Sheldon Adelson has been unmasked as the new owner associated with Las Vegas Review-Journal, having been exposed by the newspaper that is very had anonymously purchased a week earlier.

As reported right here early in the day this week, LVRJ staff were puzzled and a little dismayed to master last Thursday that the newspaper had been sold up to a mystery owner for $140 million.

All they were told ended up being that a newly incorporated business, News + Media Capital Group, was now at the helm and they should ask no longer questions.

‚They want one to concentrate on your jobs … do not be worried about who they have been,‘ was the pep talk provided by one Michael Schroeder, a News + Media Capital Group manager at the very first staff conference under the ownership that is new.

And while Schroeder assured staff that their editorial liberty would not be compromised by their new mystery owner, a front web page story on the sale that evening was redacted at Schroeder’s demand to remove sources to your proprietor’s anonymity.

Demands Transparency

It wasn’t just LVRJ’s people who had been alarmed, as other journalists began calling for transparency too, and the whole 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 proposed they certainly were interested in buying clout that is political rather than a considered financial investment, which made all of it the more crucial that their identification and affiliations be disclosed.

The fact that LVRJ is the dominant media outlet in the early-voting swing state of Nevada suggested to numerous that the buyer might be a wealthy conservative, and Adelson’s name began to be cited by speculative commentators.

Public Statement

Meanwhile, up against a conundrum, RJ staff did what good journalists do: they started digging for answers. Or as Schroeder had put it, they ‚focused on their jobs.‘

Sources ultimately 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 former owner, brand 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 might have been risking their jobs by printing the whole story, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Instead, the Adelson family made a announcement that is formal of ownership of the newspaper just hours after the story broke.

Meanwhile, whatever Adelson’s certain explanation for getting their fingers in the LVRJ, be it business or politics, his position at the helm might well sit uneasily with most journalists. Adelson currently owns newspapers in Israel, but he’s also had a tendency to individually sue journalists, for libel within the past.

One such journalist was current LVRJ columnist John L. Smith, whose 8-year-old daughter ended up being enduring from brain cancer tumors during the time of the litigation. His daughter ultimately survived, but Smith had been pushed into bankruptcy.

Adelson eventually consented to dismiss the situation with prejudice, after Smith’s lawyer successfully argued that the case had been not about defamation, but about Adelson making an exemplory case of those that crossed him.

The suit was in response to a probing book that included information Adelson had considered defamatory, as opposed to any such thing Smith had written at the Review-Journal. It is interesting to see how that relationship unfolds with this particular saga that is new.

RAWA Dead within the Water for 2015

Representative Jason Chaffetz, who 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 connect itself to an omnibus spending bill that would have seen it sail through Congress.

The bill proposes a ban that is federal all types of online gambling with the exception of horseracing and fantasy recreations.

RAWA supporters had anticipated that they could tag the bill onto the must-pass Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, a monstrous 2007-page bit of legislation that largely describes federal fiscal outlays between now as well as the end of 2016.

In a way, they hoped, RAWA would be passed into law with as little fuss as possible, much such as the Unlawful online Gambling Enforcement Act was slipped on the end of legislation created to regulate port security a decade ago.

It absolutely was the tactic that is same in reality, used in 2014, when RAWA additionally missed the omnibus. Fortunately for America’s online gambling industry, it may have to wait a time that is long the next one to show up. Twelve months, become precise.

And since RAWA in its current kind is very unlikely to be accepted by both chambers, sneaking onto that bus with out a admission perhaps remains its option that is best.

RAWA Flounders

The legislation is unpopular with many lawmakers since the Sheldon Adelson-backed bill smacks of business cronyism.

Meanwhile, most of the Republican mega-donor’s natural allies into the GOP decry it as an unconstitutional violation associated with the Tenth Amendment that seeks to stymie states‘ rights, while Democrats who might normally disapprove of online gambling are loathe to install by themselves to a policy produced by Adelson.

A initiative that is recent drum up support to push RAWA over the line failed when Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and Southern Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson exhorted fellow attorneys basic to countersign a letter cooking 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 internet poker in late 2013.

Adelson Re-raise

Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), whom introduced RAWA to the House early in the 12 months, fared no better at A house hearing that is recent of legislation, which he himself chaired, utilizing the somewhat charged title: ‚A Casino in Every Smartphone: Law Enforcement Implications.‘

Chaffetz had presumably hoped it is sufficient to trot every clich&eacute that is tired of the anti-online gambling movement, with lazy recommendations to terrorism, money-laundering and son or daughter corruption, except it didn’t quite work out that way, plus the arguments against regulation took a drubbing.

For RAWA, it appears, the chips are down.

Except Adelson has just tossed in a reraise that is massive .

His purchase of the vegas Review-Journal may offer him clout that is extra their bid to achieve governmental capital and shape viewpoints on online gambling in the video gaming capital of America.