Governor Christie Vetoes Online Gambling Bill

Posted by Jonathan Lysaght on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 · No Comments » 

An Editorial

All good things come to an end, especially if it has anything to do with our elected officials representing what the citizens of this country may actually want. Many New Jersey residents were positive that they had a governor that would make a stand and do what was needed to ensure their State’s economic health, but in the end he showed himself to be just another government official that “stays in line” and doesn’t buck the system. On Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 the highly anticipated piece of legislation that would have given New Jersey residents that right to gamble online through intrastate online gambling which would have been supported and powered by their own Atlantic City Casinos was vetoed by the Governor of the state, Chris Christie.

There had been rumors in the past week or two that there may be a chance that the governor would not sign this trial blazing bill because of peer pressure, federal government pressure and his own aspirations to run for the United States Presidency in 2012. Many in Governor Christie’s political party were against this online gambling intrastate bill since its conception and have been very vocal on the issue. Pressure surrounding these politicians and from one of the biggest Atlantic City Casinos, Caesars Entertainment Inc. seems to have been enough to deter the once in favor of intrastate gambling governor. But it also came to light recently that Governor Christie had his own future to take into consideration, with hopes of possibly running for Presidency in 2012, he knew full well that passing a bill that is so controversial would not be in his best interest politically, forgetting that financially for his state it would be a windfall!

In a press statement made before the bill was vetoed, Christie said he would veto the bill if there were any legal or constitutional questions remaining. Well obviously there were questions that needed answering, but what I don’t understand is the fact that Governor Christie has known about this bill for months now. He has known the make up of this bill and if there were questions, why wait until time runs out to make this a reason for vetoing the bill? Couldn’t he of addressed these issues weeks ago? I am sure Ray Lesniak would have been happy to tweak any wording, issues or questions that the Governor may have had and rectified the problems. One issue is certain and that’s the interference with this legislative bill by Caesars Entertainment, which has 4 casinos in Atlantic City and had a major problem with the idea of intrastate online gambling believing that it would take even more business away from their casinos by giving gamblers the opportunity to stay at home and gamble. Whatever reasons the Governor feels comfortable with using will have to satisfy the residents of New Jersey for now, but the rest of the online gambling world has just been kicked in the stomach once again by a government official who didn’t have the testicular fortitude to stand up and make a difference.

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