Ah, the nitty gritty.
The "emergency" changes to casino regulations allowed under the massive deregulation bill signed by Gov. Chris Christie on Feb. 1 are coming one after another these days:
n Atlantic City's casinos can now eliminate some multi-machine slot jackpots and keep the money rather than transfer the funds to other
n Casinos can increase the odds on new progressive slot-machines from 50 million-to-1 to 100 million-to-1. (No minor change there.)
n Casinos are no longer required to have pit bosses.
More changes are coming. And under the deregulation bill, the Division of Gaming Enforcement can, until May 1, unilaterally enact "emergency regulations" without first holding a public hearing or even providing full details of the changes ahead of time.
The changes are officially deemed temporary, and the DGE will have to take public comment as part of a formal rule-making process at some point in the future before the changes are made permanent. But even DGE Director Josh Lichtblau acknowledges the process is "an anomaly."
You might say so.
And we're guessing that few of the lawmakers who helped rush this 150-page bill through the Legislature knew that the state's long-established rule-making process would be turned upside down quite like that.
Are the new rules all bad? We aren't necessarily saying that. For example, Roger Gros, publisher of the Las Vegas-based Global Gaming Business magazine, says the rule eliminating the requirement that casinos have pit bosses brings New Jersey more in line with other casino jurisdictions. If so, then the change is difficult to object to - other than on humanitarian grounds. A lot of pit bosses are going to lose their jobs.
But we'd feel a whole lot more comfortable if this legislation had received more scrutiny - as several critics said it should as it moved through the Legislature.
And it's not just the new rules. Consider the debacle over the savings these regulatory changes were supposed to produce.
Turning over most of the Casino Control Commission's functions to the newly empowered DGE was supposed to save $20 million ... or $25 million ... or even $60 million, as our bombastic governor said at one point.
The actual savings to the casino industry, which pays the regulatory costs? No one really knows.
Christie's proposed 2012 budget puts the amount at $10 million. But with the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which is supposed to use the savings to fund the Tourism District, also obligated to provide $15 million to the horse-racing industry, CRDA may actually have to come up with another $5 million for the ponies out of existing revenue.
What an unmitigated mess.
And a pity, because it all undermines what is a reasonable goal - using sensible, well-thought-out changes to the casino regulatory system to provide a funding stream for the new Tourism District.
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