New Jersey Governor Wants to Take Over Atlantic City
July 22nd, 2010
New Jersey’s governor hopes to take control of Atlantic City by next July.
Ever since the people of New jersey voted to legalize gambling in Atlantic City in 1976, the local government in the city has overseen the casinos. Now the governor of New Jersey wants the state to step in and create a tourism district that would wrest control of gambling and tourism from the mayor and other locally elected officials.
“Atlantic City has had a historically corrupt, ineffective, inefficient government,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie yesterday. “Atlantic City is dying. We are here to partner in success. We are not here to subsidize failure.”
The governor announced a plan to reboot the state’s gaming, sports and entertainment industries, including a public-private partnership with the casinos to market Atlantic City. The new state-run Atlantic City Tourism District would take over the duties of the city-run Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, which operates Boardwalk Hall and the Atlantic City Convention Center. It would also streamline the state’s casino regulatory authority, which the governor described as being “an antique car.”
It’s unclear right now whether the move will have any impact on poker at Atlantic City casinos, though the proposed streamlining of casino regulation might help to bring new poker variations to the resort. Under the current regime, poker variants have to be explicitly listed in the gaming regulations for casinos to spread them in their poker rooms – and the process of getting games approved is time-consuming enough that it’s rarely undertaken. Currently poker rooms may only offer seven-card stud high, hi-lo and hi-lo eight-or-better; hold’em; Omaha high and hi-lo eight-or-better; five-card draw high and low; five-card stud high; and something called “Mambo stud.” Changes to those regulations might make it easier to spread lowball and draw games, as well as newer poker varieties, which in turn could increase the high-stakes action at Atlantic City poker rooms.
Gov. Christie’s deadline for implementing the plan is July 1, 2011, but several aspects of the plan will require approval from the state legislature.
