TRENTON – Time has run out for New Jersey residents to vote on whether to expand casino gambling beyond Atlantic City to North Jersey.
State Senate President Steven Sweeney has confirmed to the Associated Press that the deadline for placing the question of a referendum ballot this year passed on Tuesday.
Sweeney had earlier expressed skepticism about a plan introduced in the Assembly to expand casino gambling to Bergen, Essex, and Hudson counties, saying he preferred a more “deliberative” process before placing the question before the voters.
Sweeney has expressed support for allowing gambling in northern New Jersey, but he also wants to see a plan in place to help Atlantic City. Four casinos closed in 2014 in the economically-struggling seashore city.
With neighboring states opening casinos and the industry declining in Atlantic City, more attention has been paid recently to expanding the industry in New Jersey. The question of how many casinos and where to locate them remains far from resolved, however.
No sooner did legislators from Essex, Bergen, and Hudson counties introduced a measure allowing gambling in their counties than legislators from other parts of the state chimed in with demands casinos be allowed in their districts, too.
Some of the likely areas for casinos, if they’re ever approved, are Monmouth Park Race track in Oceanport, and sites in the Meadowlands.
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