SBC News Governor Christie calls for Atlantic City commercial meeting

Governor Christie calls for Atlantic City commercial meeting

chrischristie
Governor Chris Christie

Having vetoed the passing of the New Jersey Sports betting bill last week, Governor Chris Christie has asked for a special meeting of New Jersey legislative leaders to address concerns regarding Atlantic City.

The meeting scheduled for September 8, will look to study the causes for Atlantic Citys declining commercial performance, which has affected state funding. Christie’s office  further highlighted that the meeting, would look to push a commercial agenda for Atlantic City beyond just gambling impacts on its economic performance.

Atlantic City has witnessed its casino revenues drop from  $5.2 million in 2006 to $2.82 million in 2013. In recent weeks, the city has seen the closure of the Revel Casino Hotel, furthermore casino operators in the region have cited that they may also withdraw their operations from Atlantic City, if performance in the region does not improve.

In early 2014, Governor Christie had outlined a five year revitalisation strategy for Atlantic City. The strategy involved several initiatives and a guarantee of additional money to be made available for the marketing of Atlantic City Tourism.

At the time Chrisitie had also backed the introduction of sports betting within the state of New Jersey, in order to create additional revenues for gambling operators in  the region. However last week the Governor vetoed the passing of a state bill which would allow sports betting in licensed casino and race tracks within the state.

The withdrawal of support for the sports betting bill, had led to criticism of Governor Christies office, for its indecisive stance on the matter by Democratic Senator Ray Lesniak. The Senator believes that the state of New Jersey is running out of options for creating new revenue generating channels for existing enterprise.

Mr. Christie said in a news release. “Important signs are evident of the progress taking hold in the non-gaming development and economic activity we are seeing in AC, including businesses opening, attractions being added, and key non-gaming revenue streams rising.”

“We know that the transformation taking hold in Atlantic City is about more than just gaming and gaming-related attractions,”

 

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