<<Legalization of Internet Gaming
By Fred Faust, RGTonline.com
Legislators in New Jersey, whose Atlantic City casinos generate more gaming revenue than those of any state except Nevada, are taking a look at Internet gaming.
Joseph Azzolina, a veteran Republican who is chairman of a key committee in the Assembly, has scheduled an all-day hearing Wednesday, May 31. The Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey state legislature.
"I'm not proposing any legislation," Azzolina told RGTonline.com today. "But I believe that you fight fire with fire. We are losing money by letting people gamble at the islands or wherever it's coming from.
"Maybe it'd be better to get the taxes on it."
Azzolina said he got the idea for the hearing about a month ago when a reporter called to ask his opinion of Internet gaming.
"The idea is to explore everything," he said.
With a regulatory staff or more than 200 people, Azzolina said, New Jersey has a "well-controlled" gaming industry. He wants to know if it's possible for the state to also regulate Internet gaming.
He conceded that gaming regulators and the state Attorney General are not thrilled about the idea. He's meeting next week with the Attorney General's office to get information on the topic.
"A lot of people don't like Internet gaming," Azzolina said. "At first blush, nobody wants it."
He is chairman of the Assembly's committee on Commerce, Gaming, Tourism and Military and Veteran Affairs, which consists of five Republicans and two Democrats. He arranged for two legislative staff members to attend last week's Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo in Montreal.
One of those staffers, Deborah Smarth, said the public hearing will begin at 10 a.m. at the statehouse in Trenton. Invited speakers include gaming lawyers Anthony Cabot of Las Vegas and Nick Casiello Jr. of Atlantic City; J.P. Suarez, head of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement; Fernando DiCarlo of Gametronics; an analyst from Bear Stearns; and Ed Looney of the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling.
"He wants to hear from everybody," Smarth said, referring to Azzolina. She said there'll be time for questions and comments from the public.
Azzolina, who owns a chain of 13 supermarkets, said that although he supported the laws that enabled casinos in Atlantic City and created the New Jersey Lottery, he doesn't gamble much. Fifty dollars is his limit, he said.
He also is no devotee of the Internet.
"I don't spend any time on the Internet," he told RGTonline.com. "I don't have the patience. My children do all that."
Azzolina is aware that pending federal legislation prohibiting Internet gaming could make the issue moot for the New Jersey legislature. But he's skeptical that the feds or anyone else can stop it.
"I don't know how they can stop it," he said. "How would you catch everyone in their homes?"
He also would prefer that the regulation of gaming remain a state matter, he said, rather than federal.
Legalization of Internet gaming in New Jersey would require a long battle, Azzolina said. He noted that long battles were needed to get voters to approve the Atlantic City casinos and the state lottery.>> |
