Phil Gregory, WBGO News

New Jersey lawmakers are considering new regulations for crane and claw amusement games that include posting the odds of winning right on the machines.

Edward McGlynn with the New Jersey Amusement Association opposes the legislation.

"These are skill machines so I don't know how you make odds available for skill machines. To me the analogy would be how can you make odds as to whether or not someone is going to bowl 300. It just doesn't work."

Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle says she spent a lot of time and money playing claw machines trying to win a prize for her kids.
"How skillful is it when you're really just moving the crane with the claw and all of the sudden you've got in and you're coming down to pick up the stuffed animal and then it drops."

Huttle says posting the odds of winning would be helpful.

"In all the amusement games that is probably the toughest which means it would probably have the most odds against winning because you can see that very few people win on that."

Bergen Record Op-Ed

BY VALERIE VAINIERI HUTTLE

NEW JERSEY'S economy has had a difficult time recovering from the effects of the recession. Our job creation lags behind the rest of the nation, and we lack revenue for key programs such as education, property tax relief and pensions. Now we have an opportunity to generate billions of dollars without raising taxes or fees. We should take it.

That opportunity is the expansion of gaming to North Jersey. For years, our state has shelved the possibility of new gaming destinations to protect Atlantic City. But that strategy has proved ineffective. That is why I, along with Assemblymen Ralph Caputo, D-Belleville, and Raj Mukherji, D-Jersey City, have introduced legislation to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November to allow for new gaming in North Jersey.

Gaming expansion is not about Atlantic City versus other parts of the state. It is about the economic future of all of New Jersey. New gaming would allow us to reclaim more than $1 billion in revenue going out of state to our neighbors in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York. It would also mean jobs, thousands of construction and operations jobs for New Jersey residents. Those jobs, together with approximately $600 million in additional potential revenue from new casinos, hotels, retail stores, entertainment spaces and other attractions, would put New Jersey back on sound financial footing.

By DANIEL HUBBARD (Patch Staff)

Hard Rock International unveiled its plan Wednesday to open a billion-dollar casino at the Meadowlands as soon as next summer.

The 650,000 square-foot property “will compete with anything in the world,” Hard Rock Chairman Jim Allen said at a press conference at the Meadowlands Wednesday, theAsbury Park Press reported.

Hard Rock’s trademark giant guitar will be “a beacon in the night” across the Hudson River for New York City residents to come and experience 200 gambling tables and 5,000 slot machines, he said.

Hard Rock International and Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment have said a casino at the Meadowlands could bring in as much as $400 million in state tax revenue and create up to 10,000 jobs.

By Heather Haddon Wall Street Journal

Even with Atlantic City casinos struggling, New Jersey officials may ask voters to expand gambling to the northern part of the state—and some companies are ready with ambitious plans to get a piece of the action.

Hard Rock International and the Meadowlands Racetrack are set to unveil plans for a casino Wednesday that would be just west of New York City and next to MetLifeStadium, which draws hundreds of thousands of fans across the Hudson River to watch the New York Giants and New York Jets.

Plans for a $4 billion casino complex adjacent to Liberty National Golf Course on the waterfront in Jersey City are also in the works. Billionaire investor Paul Fireman is proposing a high-end resort featuring a 90-story hotel, 14 restaurants, a theater and a complex of pools on a 200-acre site that would be linked to New York City by ferry service, people familiar with the plan said.

While developers are armed with blueprints, lawmakers in Trenton remain divided on whether—and how quickly—a referendum should be placed before voters to authorize the largest expansion of gambling in the state since a 1976 vote legalized casinos in Atlantic City.

Some elected officials are pushing for a vote this November, while others are calling for one in November 2016, when voter turnout is expected to be much higher because of the presidential election. The fight has exposed regional fault-lines that transcend party, with at least one South Jersey Republican voicing rare public criticism of Gov. Chris Christie.

Bill Would Ask for Voter Approval to Expand Casino Gaming to North Jersey

(TRENTON) – Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee Chairman Ralph R. Caputo (D-Essex) and Assembly members Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) and Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson) issued a multimedia package Tuesday of their news conference in which they unveil a proposal for bringing casino gaming to North Jersey.

The proposed constitutional amendment would ask New Jersey voters to approve giving the Legislature authority to pass laws establishing casinos in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties.

The multimedia package consists of the members’ news conference, in its entirety and audio of same.

NJTV : North Jersey lawmakers want a question on the ballot that would let voters permit casinos outside of Atlantic City. They want up to three allowed, possibly in Hudson, Essex, and Bergen counties, to recapture the gaming marketshare.

Click to watch the video below

Matt Freidman NJ Advance Media

Several lawmakers who want to allow casino gambling outside of Atlantic City are now seeking as many as three casinos in northern New Jersey — up from two.

The trio of Assembly members from Essex, Bergen and Hudson Counties on Monday announced that they've introduced a proposed constitutional amendment — which, if passed by the Legislature, would have to be approved by voters — to allow the casinos in their three counties. 

Revenue from the casinos would in part go to redeveloping Atlantic City, which has been devastated by the downturn of its gambling industry largely due to competition from neighboring states.

"We can't sit by any longer. The history of Atlantic City is one I was part of," Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Essex), a former casino executive who is sponsoring the resolution with Assembly members Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) and Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson), said during a Statehouse press conference. "The business has changed. We've had tremendous competition from our neighboring states... If you don't adapt, you become extinct and you become a dinosaur."

Casino gaming has only been allowed Atlantic City since voters chose to legalize it there in 1976.

By John Brennan The Record

Three North Jersey Assembly members introduced a resolution on Monday that recommends that up to three casinos be built in Bergen, Hudson, or Essex Counties.

The resolution is part of an effort to have a statewide ballot question approved in time for voters to consider ending Atlantic City's four-decade casino monopoly.

"We can't sit by any longer," said Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, a former Atlantic City casino executive, adding that a portion of the tax revenues would go to Atlantic City.

Caputo said he also would support giving laid-off Atlantic City casino workers - four of the city's 12 casinos have closed in the last 18 months - preference in hiring at the North Jersey facilities.

Meadowlands Racetrack operator Jeff Gural will unveil renderings for a Hard Rock Casino Meadowlands that is proposed to be located adjacent to his $100 million, two-year-old grandstand.

Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood, said that it was time to give up on the idea of allowing Atlantic City more time to revive before more casinos are built elsewhere in the state.

Bergen Dispatch

Assembly Democrats Ralph Caputo, Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Raj Mukherji on Monday announced they've introduced legislation to ask New Jersey voters to approve giving the Legislature authority to pass laws establishing casinos in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties.

The proposed constitutional amendment – announced at a State House news conference - would allow the Legislature to pass laws establishing not more than three casinos in the three North Jersey counties.

"We cannot sit idle any longer," said Caputo (D-Essex). "We can't bury our head in the sand anymore, because one day we're going to look up and our gaming dollars will have flocked away to other states. This is not about taking business away from Atlantic City. This is about New Jersey missing out on the available markets in northern New Jersey and the surrounding region. With continuously encroaching competition from New York and Pennsylvania, the longer we wait the more our window of opportunity closes. If New Jersey is going to stay competitive, it needs alternatives, and that means putting casinos in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties."

(TRENTON) - Assembly Democrats Ralph Caputo, Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Raj Mukherji on Monday announced they've introduced legislation to ask New Jersey voters to approve giving the Legislature authority to pass laws establishing casinos in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties.
The proposed constitutional amendment - announced at a State House news conference - would allow the Legislature to pass laws establishing not more than three casinos in the three North Jersey counties.
"We cannot sit idle any longer," said Caputo (D-Essex). "We can't bury our head in the sand anymore, because one day we're going to look up and our gaming dollars will have flocked away to other states. This is not about taking business away from Atlantic City. This is about New Jersey missing out on the available markets in northern New Jersey and the surrounding region. With continuously encroaching competition from New York and Pennsylvania, the longer we wait the more our window of opportunity closes. If New Jersey is going to stay competitive, it needs alternatives, and that means putting casinos in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties."
"We are losing gaming tourists to our neighbors and it is time we bring them back home to New Jersey," said Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen). "Now is the time to finally focus on finding the best ways to utilize gaming to boost the North Jersey economy and our state as a whole. We can bring top-flight casinos to Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties while helping Atlantic City, benefiting everyone and ensuring New Jersey remains competitive."
"We've watched New York and Pennsylvania slowly but surely erode New Jersey's gaming industry, and the time for talk is over," said Mukherji (D-Hudson). "Jobs, jobs, jobs. If the voters authorize limited North Jersey gaming in these three counties that are crucial to our economic success, we could realize more than 20,000 good paying jobs and realize billions in additional gross gaming revenues in the coming years. In the face of continuously encroaching competition from New York and Pennsylvania, our window of opportunity closes with each additional minute of delay."