TRENTON – A package of bills sponsored by Senate Democrats to help reinvigorate Atlantic City’s ailing casino industry and help stabilize the State’s failing horse racing industry were approved in two separate Senate Committees today.
The bills, the result of Statewide hearings held on issues pertaining to the gaming and wagering economic sectors earlier this year, are intended to bolster economic activity and maintain competitiveness for our gaming industries, which are facing more and more competition from across State lines.
“The casino industry is the economic engine for the South Jersey region,” said Senator Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, the Chair of the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee which advanced three of the five bills which were approved today, and co-chair of the Legislative Gaming Summit which recommended the bills. “Horse-racing is a major component of our Statewide economy. Taken together, these industries are too big and too important to be allowed to fail, and we have to do our part to allow our State’s gaming and wagering facilities to compete with out-of-State gaming interests which are leaching funds away from New Jersey.”