Poll: New Jerseyans Are (Still) Against Casino Expansion Outside Atlantic City

While some lawmakers in New Jersey are seeking to bring casinos north of Atlantic City — and other lawmakers are busy penning letters trying to make sure that doesn’t happen — the voters of New Jersey would like to have a word or two.

And the words apparently are this: “Thanks but no thanks.”

That’s the upshot of a recent poll out of Fairleigh Dickinson University, which asked over 800 New Jerseyans if they would support or oppose plans to expand casino gaming to other areas of the state outside of A.C.

Some 44% were in favor of expansion, and 49% were not. And 6% weren’t sure.

These numbers are basically the same as during polling in January of 2016, about 10 months before a referendum on the matter was presented to voters. And back then, the measure didn’t fail at the voting booth by the 49-44 margin; voters overwhelmingly smacked down the idea, with 77% of voters giving the idea a hard pass.

“People made up their minds about casino expansion a long time ago,” Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the executive director of the FDU Poll, said in a press release. “Unless something dramatic happens, putting the issue in front of voters is going to lead to the same outcome as it did before.”

AC or bust

For the uninitiated: Casino gambling in New Jersey is currently limited to Atlantic City, and changing that requires amending the state constitution. That means the legislature has to pass it, and then voters have to approve it in a referendum. The proposed expansion would put casinos at the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park racetracks, where they’d go head-to-head with new casinos opening in downstate New York.

And while the idea of a Manhattan casino certainly spooked Atlantic City, in the end, all three New York casinos will be in the outer boroughs. 

“The only thing that’s changed since last time this was tried is more casinos opening in New York,” Cassino said. “That matters a lot to the folks who want to open casinos, but it doesn’t seem to matter to the voters.”

The opposition runs deep and wide. Voters 65 and older oppose expansion 58-38, which tracks with what Cassino called a long memory: “Older voters remember the commitment that casinos were only ever going to be in Atlantic City, and they’re holding the state to those promises.”

Even younger voters aren’t on board. Among those 30 and under, it’s 49% opposed, 45% in favor.

And of all the numbers, this last bit is probably the most important: The strongest opposition isn’t coming from the Atlantic City area, where lawmakers have been loudly fighting expansion to protect existing casinos. It’s coming from Bergen and Passaic counties, right where the Meadowlands casino would actually go. Only 38% of residents there support the idea, with 56% opposed. The people who’d be living next to the thing don’t want it.

Here’s another word: Fuggedaboutit.