N.J. Assembly backs A.C. plan

The New Jersey Assembly approved five bills Monday night to enhance the state's casino-gambling and horse-racing industries. The measures, among other things, would create a new state-run casino tourism district in Atlantic City, revise certain gambling-industry regulations, and allow Internet casino wagering, as well as boost racehorse breeding in New Jersey.

Four of the bills go to Gov. Christie to be signed into law. A measure to establish a Casino Gaming Study Commission still needs Senate consideration.

"The casino and horse-racing industries are crucial to job creation and economic development in New Jersey," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester), who chairs the Assembly Regulatory and Oversight Committee, which crafted the bills. "We've now taken great steps toward ensuring these industries remain competitive and strong economic engines for years to come."

Two of the measures - the new tourism district, which broadens the powers and duties of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and transfers the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority and its functions to the CRDA; and the bill deregulating the gaming industry to attract investment - are central to Christie's proposed overhaul of the troubled resort that he announced in July.

Those bills' final passage marks the first real change in more than three decades to how business is conducted in the nation's second-largest gaming market, which is reeling from the weak economy and regional competition. The resulting structure mirrors that of Nevada.

The Assembly's approval of the bills, which it amended last week, came the same day that the state Casino Control Commission released annual figures showing Atlantic City's 11 casinos with a 9.6 percent decrease in revenue last year compared with 2009. Casino revenues fell to $3.6 billion.

"We have seen continued strength in non-gaming areas, but the state of the economy and the increase in competition continued to hurt casino revenue last year," said commission chairwoman Linda Kassekert.

Atlantic City ended 2010 with a 28th consecutive monthly revenue decline. Its casinos recorded winnings of only $237.2 million in December, down 12.8 percent from December 2009. That represented the second-largest year-over-year decline for a single month last year.