Four Atlantic City Casinos Reportedly In Jeopardy Of Closure Without Passage Of Tax CutsNew Jersey Senate President Says Lawmakers Must Pass Bill To Keep Those Four Unnamed Properties In Business |
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A New Jersey lawmaker said Monday that the state would lose nearly half of its brick-and-mortar casino market if the state doesn’t pass a bill that gives tax breaks to the operators.
According to a report from a New York NBC affiliate, New Jersey Senate president Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, made the claim at a Senate budget committee hearing. The bill, which made it out of the committee and will hit the Senate floor later this month, would allow properties to make payments to the city, county, and the local school system instead of paying property taxes.
While the proposal would allow casinos to halt property taxes, they would not get any tax breaks on their gross gambling revenues.
“There are four casinos in jeopardy of closing,” said Sweeney. “We do not want that to happen. I don’t want to have a situation where it’s, ‘I told you that place was going to close, and it closed.’”
New Jersey gambling revenue continued to rebound nicely from its 2020 woes in October, the most recent month with published revenue, as operators reported $448.7 million in gross gambling revenue. Brick-and-mortar operations were responsible for $237.5 million of that total.
But regarding casinos, there is a stark contrast between the top-earning casinos and those towards the bottom of the list.
Borgata was the highest-grossing casino in the area with $61.7 million in revenue in October which was approximately between three and four times larger than the bottom four earners in the market.
Resorts and Golden Nugget were on the other end of the spectrum with $14.6 million and $14.285 million, respectively, while Tropicana and Caesars were the other two properties making up the bottom four with both netting $21.2 million.
Based on the earnings report, it seems likely that those four properties are the ones in jeopardy of closing. However, it could be Harrah’s that is in trouble since Golden Nugget has the second-largest online casino in the Garden State.
Online gambling and sports betting have been surging recently and are a big part of why revenues have rebounded. But they are also why property taxes have increased drastically as well.
According to NBC, casino executives have argued that since they are forced to share profits with technology partners and other partners, they are still paying the full taxable amount. After listening to executives, lawmakers removed online gambling and sports betting revenue from the calculations on how much each casino would pay the locales.
If the bill passes through the Senate, it will need to pass through the assembly afterward before heading to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk. The proposal is estimated to cut tax revenue from casinos in half from $110 million to $55 million.
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