Christie Pledges to Sign Online Gaming Bill Quickly
March 6th, 2013 by Site Admin
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has pledged to sign an online gaming bill if lawmakers made the revisions he requested. He stated on Tuesday that the legislation is priority and he will sign it as quickly as possible. He could potentially sign it within 24 hours.
New Jersey lawmakers hope their state will be the third in the country to pass a bill legalizing online gambling. They believe that their state will be one of the key players in the future of online gaming in the United States. The new bill would mark the biggest step New Jersey has taken to expand online gaming in nearly 40 years.
Both the Senate and Assembly have stated that they intend to consider voting on the new version of the bill in the next week. Lawmakers from both houses said that they are willing to address the concerns that Christie raised when he vetoed the bill a couple of weeks ago. Christie requested a 10 year trial period and asked for lawmakers to increase the taxes on casinos providing online gaming. He also raised concerns that the previous version of the bill didn’t contain enough safeguards to protect minors and citizens with gambling addictions.
Senator Raymond Lesniak, the author of the original bill, said both the House and Senate hope to pass a revised bill within the week. They would like to send the bill to Christie by February 26. Both houses are in recess, but will be meeting that day to hear Christie’s speech about the budget.
Most of New Jersey’s casino owners support the legislation. The casinos will be responsible for managing online gaming operations in New Jersey.
Leave a Reply
