Posts Tagged ‘Atlantic City’

Internet Gambling in New Jersey

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Internet gambling in the United States is illegal.  It’s cut and dried.  But a recent federal appeals court decision just may have given states the option to offer internet gambling within their own borders.  In cash-strapped New Jersey, which is expected to have the seventh largest budget deficit this fiscal year of the 50 states, the notion has appeal.

State Senator Raymond Lesniak recently introduced bill S3167, which would indeed legalize such popular games as poker, baccarat, blackjack, roulette, craps, slot machines, and more.  With New Jersey’s distinction of having the toughest gambling laws in the United States, implementing the on-line form seems a natural and comforting fit.

Currently, there are thousands of global internet gambling sites.  They are illegal in New Jersey, in part because there is no way for the state gaming commission to determine whether these games offer fair odds.  Many who do still gamble illegally on the internet complain of not being able to collect their winnings.  Would you trust a gambling site located in the Philippines or Bulgaria?

The other reason they are not legal in New Jersey is rather obvious – Atlantic City.  The state’s 11 casinos generated $3.9 billion in revenue in 2009.  While down from $5.2 billion in record-setting 2006, it still is a major contributor to state coffers.

The new internet gambling bill, if eventually made into law, would require all gaming companies to be headquartered around Atlantic City.  The New Jersey Casino Control Commission, also based in AC, would be able to monitor the new companies, plus develop “technical standards for approval of software, computers and other gaming equipment used to conduct internet wagering, including mechanical, electrical or program reliablility, security against tampering, the comprehensibility of wagering, …. blah, blah, blah.”   Did you get all that?

Internet site operators would pay $200,000 the first year for a license, with a $100,000 annual renewal.  They’d also pay a $100,000 non-refundable deposit and another $100,000 towards treating compulsive gambling.  They’d fork over a 20% tax to the casino revenue fund and another tax would give money to the New Jersey Racing Commission.  No wonder so many groups are salivating over the prospect of internet gambling.

AC Mayor Lorenzo Langford spoke in favor of the internet gambling concept, while casino operators seem concerned that the bill might allow video lottery terminals (VLT’s) and slot machines at the state’s race tracks.  The AC casinos are currently paying the horseracing industry $90 million over three years in an agreement that bans VLT’s from tracks.

With New Jersey’s perilious money situation, internet gambling seems like a good revenue producer.  The AC casinos will survive because, let’s face it, you don’t have the glitz of the casinos and shows and entertainers and restaurants sitting at home on your computer.  And you can bet that the 11 casinos will be the first in line to get those new internet gaming licenses.  They see the possibilities!

- Mountain Man and City Girl   http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

The blogsite of Jewell Real Estate Agency, Wildwood Crest, NJ  http://www.JewellRealEstateAgency.com

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Atlantic City Woes Continue

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s expected signature today on a bill to allow table games in addition to its existing slot machines is another bit of bad news for Atlantic City.  The bill passed the state Senate 28-22 previously and the Assembly 103-89 yesterday.  Rendell threatened to layoff 1,000 state workers if the bill wasn’t on his desk by tomorrow (Friday, Jan 8, 2010).  That got legislators moving.

Pennsylvania will now permit up to 250 table games in larger casinos and up to 50 in smaller resort casinos.  Table games are poker, baccarat, blackjack, roulette, craps, and similar games of chance.  The cost of licensing is $16.5 million for the large casinos and $7.5 million for resort casinos, which is a drop in the bucket in the scope of the big picture.  The 14 casinos in the state should add an additional $250 million per year to state coffers.

Atlantic City, the No.2 casino city in the United States after Las Vegas, has seen reduced revenues for over a year, putting an added strain on New Jersey’s already bloated budget deficit.  The monopoly Atlantic City once enjoyed on gambling on the East Coast is ancient history.

Connecticut has three Indian casinos that allow slots and table games, making them the first to cut into Atlantic City’s lucrative market.  West Virginia was next, first having slots at two dog tracks and two horse tracks, then adding table games in 2007.  They recently granted a full gambling license to the infamous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs.

Delaware has one poker venue in Wilmington, plus video poker and slots at the three “racinos”, as they call their race tracks with legal gambling.  It won’t be long before table games are installed in each of the sites.

So what is Atlantic City to do?  They will lose much of their Philadelphia area gamblers once the table games open next November or so.  Delaware’s table games will debut around the same time.  No doubt entrepreneurs will add restaurants and resort hotels near the casinos, further damaging Atlantic City’s bottom line.

Atlantic City will need to take advantage of what it’s already got for the dozen casinos, employing 36,000 workers, to be profitable.  That means marketing non-gaming venues.  Upscale, fashionable restaurants with trendy surroundings are already a big draw, as are the 200 retail, brand name, and outlet stores.

Atlantic City also has big name entertainers going for it.  Not a night goes by that the city doesn’t feature a dozen acts targeting every age group.  Glitzy, nouveau nightclubs, with a regular parade of celebrity sightings, is turning AC into a mecca for the 21-40 year old crowd.  And they have bucks to spend.

AC also offers championship boxing matches, plus those new martial art/kick boxing/in-a-cage fights.  There’s also college basketball, including the Atlantic 10 tournament each March.

Last but not least, there’s the beach.  Geez, no other casino in neighboring states has the sparkling white sands and bikini babes.  And the beach is a great place to watch an air show or fireworks or lifeguard competitions or throw a frisbee or ….

Well, maybe Atlantic City should be saying, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”  Time will tell.

- Mountain Man and City Girl

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

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Just a Feeling

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

As realtors, we often get hunches about our own individual local real estate market, whether it’s Monterrey, California or Baton Rouge, Louisiana or Bangor, Maine. 

Here at Jewell Real Estate Agency, we have a feeling about 2010.  A strong feeling.  All the pieces seem to be falling into place that 2010 is going to be a great year.  The best since 2005.

Our local real estate market is Cape May County, a small tourist-oriented county at the very southern tip of New Jersey.  While we have just 96,000 yearround residents, the summer population swells to 750,000 or more on any given day.  Our beautiful Atlantic Ocean beaches and back bays and famous boardwalks attract vacationers from Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania; New York City and the surrounding areas of northern New Jersey, southwestern Connecticut, and New York state; plus some fun-seekers from Maryland,Washington, DC and eastern Canada.

We almost exclusively sell vacation homes – including condos and townhomes - and multifamily homes, with an occasional commercial property.  We sell a few primary homes each year, mostly off the islands on the mainland.  There just isn’t a great demand.  The seasonality of our location makes us unattractive to yearround living for a young family just getting started.  There just isn’t enough yearround employment to suit their needs, so the younger generation tends to migrate toward the Philadelphia area and its jobs.  The primary homes we do sell are mostly to retirees looking to enjoy the quiet shore life, plus the restaurants, fishing, and attractions of Cape May, the Wildwoods, and even Atlantic City 35 miles to the north.

So back to the countdown to 2010. 

We are already showing properties every day, a phenomenon lacking over Christmas break the last two years.  Joyce wrote two contracts yesterday – both accepted – and we’ve got plenty of showings today and tomorrow, right up to New Year’s Eve.

People seem eager to buy right now.  There’s an enthusiasm amongst prospective buyers that has replaced the overall reluctance evident in 2007 through the first half of 2009.  Maybe it’s the low interest rates or the bargain basement prices of real estate.  Maybe it’s that folks are tired of sitting on the sidelines and putting off buying that American dream second home.  Or perhaps it’s because many in the media have given the green light to purchasing real estate and abandoned their doom and gloom prophecies.

Whatever the reason, we have a bounce in our step and a twinkle in our eyes.  The new year looks very promising.  I think I’ll stick a bottle of champagne under the seat of my truck.  After my last property showing tomorrow afternoon, I think I’ll break out the bubbly and toast the good times ahead.  Wanna join me?

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

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