Gambling news from http://www.nj.com/
TRENTON -- Sen. Stephen Sweeney is calling on Gov. Jon Corzine to withdraw support for video gambling terminals in North Jersey, calling them a threat to Atlantic City's $5 billion gaming industry and the South Jersey economy.
Sweeney in a Tuesday letter to the governor said he was aware of a meeting between Corzine and casino officials warning them to prepare for the introduction of video lottery terminals, or VLTs, at the Meadowlands Race Track.
"A decision to place VLTs or slot machines outside of Atlantic City could be devastating to the progress we are achieving in Atlantic City and could have a seismic impact on the entire New Jersey economy," Sweeney, D-3 of West Deptford, wrote in the letter.
Efforts to bring VLTs --video slot machines or poker -- have been tried in the past. As recently as last year, then-Gov. Richard Codey unsuccessfully attempted to bring in $150 million in revenue from them before lawmakers from the Atlantic City area defeated the push.
Corzine has acknowledged meeting privately last week with casino industry executives to apprise them of the looming approval of the terminals.
In his letter, Sweeney pointed to 2005 comments by Corzine that VLTs "would have a deleterious effect on Atlantic City's well-established gaming industry" and would threaten the economies of South Jersey and the state as a whole.
"Atlantic City is exploding with the type of growth we only dream of. Atlantic City has grown from daily bus tours into a destination," Sweeney said in a later telephone interview.
"Anything that takes away from that within the state doesn't make sense."
Corzine, speaking later on an Atlantic city talk radio program, said the casinos need to keep ahead of the regional gaming climate and continue to generate revenue.
"No one has fought harder for the success of Atlantic City, nor will anyone. But the fact is they are going to have VLTs in Pennsylvania. They have VLT-Lite in Delaware," he said on the Pinky Kravitz Show on WOND AM, a 1,000-watt Atlantic City station.
"They are going to surround the state in the next 18 months."
The 12 Atlantic City casinos pay an 8 percent tax on all income to the state or $304 million last year, according to the state Treasury Department.
That money is dedicated primarily to cover costs of the the state Pharmaceuticals for the Aged and Disabled and Senior Gold programs to provide prescription drug assistance to the state's senior citizens.
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