It is important that we pay attention to what is happening in New Jersey. It is my opinion that we could be facing a similar situation here in Newport. Christie and his cronies are trying to direct the people of NJ to amend the constitution that would allow a statewide vote to expand casino gambling in northern NJ.
We cannot trust Taylor and Twin Rivers or our upstate politicians. I’d like to think I’m wrong, but I can see them trying to get a state wide vote in a couple years via a constitutional amendment to keep Newport Grand alive WITH table games … removing the local vote. Although their current offer is to relocate the license from Newport to Tiverton, I don’t think they have any plans to remove casino revenue from Newport. I just don’t see their addiction to this revenue subsiding … nor their desire to pull as much money as possible out of Newport.
A lot can and will happen in the next two to four years in the industry. I think chances are good that there will be a push to increase the saturation even more than what exists with the 60 northeast casinos. The term “convenience casino” may be replaced by “neighborhood casino” or “county casino”.
- http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/05/poll_do_you_support_a_constitutional_amendment_to.html
- http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/business/north-jersey-casino-boon-or-bane/article_f22a78f4-0548-11e5-9b9c-6b39c56b35bb.html
- http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/05/26/hard-rock-track-propose-long-planned-casino-outside-nyc
