New Jersey Citizens Are Not in Favour of Casino Expansion in North Jersey

More than half of the surveyed did not support the casino expansion plan.

It turns out that citizens of New Jersey aren’t too keen on expanding the state’s casino gambling industry by opening new casinos in areas outside Atlantic City.

Last year, we reported that the people of New Jersey will be voting on whether there should be a casino expansion in the north part of the state, but the public’s attitude seems to be changing. On the other hand, the online casino gaming industry did pretty well in New Jersey last year.

We still don’t know whether the proponents of the idea for a casino expansion in the state will managed to convince the voters in New Jersey that opening new casinos in North Jersey will be good for the citizens and the economy.

Only 37% in Favour of the Plan

A poll was conducted by PublicMind of Fairleigh Dickinson University which showed that the residents of New Jersey are even less likely to support the plans for opening two land-based casinos in the north of the state than they were in January this year.

The results show that the support for the plans suffered a decrease from 42% to a mere 37% in a period of six months, January to June. Also, it was reported that 57% of the polled are not welcoming towards the expansion plan.

The director of PublicMind, Krista Jenkins, stated that this will be a serious problem for those who are in favour of the idea and that they would have to do a lot of work in order to convince the citizens. Jenkins said that the residents aren’t convinced that the casino industry in the state should be allowed to grow and they don’t see a reason why the expansion would be a good idea.

Men Tend to Support Casino Expansion more than Women

There are some slight difference in the attitudes of men and women that were surveyed. Understandably, people who attended casinos in the last period were very likely to support the expansion plan. Men, were in favour of the sharing the tax revenues with Atlantic City. Or to be more precise, 48% of the surveyed men were in favour of this idea, compared to a mere 36% of women.

In terms of support for the expansion, 41% of the men supported it, and only one third of women. Half of the people who visit casinos had a positive view of the expansion, whereas the percentage was significantly lower with people who don’t visit casinos – 30%. Interestingly, when it came to sharing tax revenues with Atlantic City, the opinion of casino goers was divided, 46% of them were against the idea and 43% were in favour of it.

There’s only 4 months to go until the voters will be able to decide via a plebiscite whether a casino expansion in North Jersey will be allowed or not. The president of Resorts Casino Hotel predicted that the establishment of two new casinos will hurt the existing 8 and that even 3 to 5 of them will have to close. Fitch Ratings also warned that at least two casinos will be forced to close.