News

Wednesday, 30 March 2011 01:06

After weeks of speculation and hope, the New Jersey Governor now looks set to veto the online gambling bill that has already passed through the state assembly.

The office desk of Chris Christie, the New Jersey Governor is where the state's online gambling bill landed six weeks ago awaiting the formality of his signature to make it law. The bill had already sailed through the state assembly and appeared to have the popular backing of a large majority of lawmakers for the state. The Atlantic City casino industry awaited its fate with baited breath because they knew that its passing into law would save their business and make the whole state stronger financially. But something seemed to be wrong when the weeks began to pass by and there was no word from the governor's office on why he had not signed the bill.

Finally, a New York Post report has revealed the reason for the delay. It appears that Governor Christie has an agenda of his own and it does not look like it has anything to do with the financial welfare of his state. The report has revealed that Christie is not expected to sign the bill, but instead will veto it before the 45 day time limit is up on Thursday this week.

That decision will certainly quell any hope created in the most recent study to be published on the successful passage of the online gambling bill. It predicts revenue generation of billions of dollars and the long term creation of many thousands of jobs.

The reason for his decision seems to be based on the belief that Christie may harbour aspirations for the 2012 presidency and if this is true, then he would not want to be associated with gambling in any way. This would also be in keeping with the Republican Party stance.

There have been speculative rumours that Christie may have simply not signed the bill, effectively allowing it to become law once it passed its 45 day limit without his official sanction. The recent report now discredits those rumours and it seems more likely that Christie will go ahead and veto the bill, effectively distancing him from the online gambling debate.

If Christie does veto the bill, the Assembly has the power to override that decision. However, that seems unlikely, as one of the bill's co-sponsors Senator Raymond Lesniak has said that he believes if the bill is vetoed by Christie, then similar efforts that are currently finding their way through several other state legislatures are also set to fail.