It's An Ill Wind... Update
Published: Friday, July 07, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
IT'S AN ILL WIND.... UPDATE
STOP PRESS
Relief is in sight for Atlantic City as we go to press this week. Wire service reports indicate that the two day State government shutdown that has closed 12 major land casinos could be lifted sometime over the weekend.
The deadlock on the state budget at the root of the problem appears to have been broken following an agreement on Thursday night announced by New Jersey governor Jon Corzine.
The agreement was achieved by legislative leaders signing on to a 1 percent hike in the state sales tax conditional that half is dedicated to relief from the state's crushing property taxes. At a news conference, Corzine said if fiscal stability is restored the entire increase will be used for property tax assistance from 2008 on.
Once the Legislature approves the fiscal 2007 budget, employees - including gaming inspectors - can return to work. Corzine said he expected the process to take 24 to 36 hours.
The two-day shutdown paralysed gambling halls, state parks and race tracks, shut down lottery ticket terminals and sent tens of thousands of state employees on an unexpected and unpaid vacation.
The head of the Casino Control Commission has said the casinos could be back in business within hours after the shutdown order was lifted.
Daniel Heneghan, public information officer for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said once Corzine's office lifts the emergency shutdown order, commission Chair Linda Kassekert will sign an order to open the casinos.
"We have inspectors on call, ready to respond whenever that happens," he said. "As soon as that happens, we will open up casinos as soon as possible."
"Everybody's relieved this is going to be behind us," said Michael Facenda, a spokesman for the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which opened a $200 million expansion last week and then had to close part of it Wednesday. "We're anxious to get back to work and show off the product."
Not everyone was happy, however. "This is outrageous, that we are required to wait 24 to 36 hours to reopen when we were told that if there was an agreement in principle, as quickly as we could open, we'd be able to," one gambling operator said Thursday afternoon.
The unusual situation illustrated how important gambling is to New Jersey; NJ Transit bus passenger loads from Newark and New York to Atlantic City fell by 70 percent Wednesday, according to spokesman Dan Stessel.
IT'S AN ILL WIND....
Atlantic City budget debacle and Scotland's smoking ban is good for some....bad for others
The old saying that it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good came to mind this week with the news of two incidents that made life difficult for land gambling companies but drove more business to Internet venues.
In the first, Scots land bingo fans are reported to be increasingly turning to online bingo sites following a smoking ban in their traditional halls of entertainment.
Spokesmen for Online Bingo.co.uk say that bingo fans hit by the smoking ban are flocking to online bingo sites so they can continue to smoke whilst playing.
Since the anti-smoking law came into effect three months ago, five bingo halls have been forced to close in Scotland after operators saw revenues drop by more than 25 percent as players were forced to obey no-smoking rules.
But in that same timeframe online bingo websites like Bingo Scotland.com have seen an astonishing 400 percent rise in membership.
Jeanette Clunie (38) from Edinburgh is a typical smoker who likes to play bingo and has just recently converted to playing online. She says: “Many of my friends now no longer go to traditional bingo halls because of the smoking ban. I think online bingo is definitely on the up and through time, bingo halls will be a thing of the past. I personally wouldn’t use bingo halls now you can’t smoke in them and haven’t been to one since the ban.”
Premier Bingo in Denny, near Falkirk, and Rio Bingo in Kirkcaldy, Fife, are two of the five bingo halls that have been closed. They were operated by K.E. Entertainments who saw players arrive later and leave earlier to light up. Operations manager Mike Lowe said: “I’ve recorded as high as 47percent of players leaving a session in order to smoke.”
Across the Atlantic, New Jersey's budget debacle has generated additional business for offshore Internet gambling venues.
After failing to agree a state budget on the July 4th long weekend, the New Jersey government had to close the 12 casinos in Atlantic City for the first time in the 28 years that gambling has been legal there. With no budget available the state cannot afford to pay casino inspectors, who monitor cash flow.
The failure of Governor Jon Corzine and his fellow Democrats in the legislature to produce a budget by the deadline of the end of June has meant that 45 000 state workers have had to take an enforced holiday without pay.
Estimated revenues of $16 million a day are being lost by the land casino companies in the crisis, but an otherwise inexplicable upward trend in new business has been reported by some online gambling venues that may be taking up the Atlantic City slack by entertaining diehard gamblers.
