Atlantic City: Sweeney wins … or does he?

In the end, New Jersey‘s two houses of the Legislature came together on casino expansion and we have to say that Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D) blinked first, from where we sit. (In the peanut gallery, natch.) But was state Senate President Stephen Sweeney‘s victory Pyhrric in nature? Looks that way. By squabbling until after the Jan. 11 deadline, Sweeney and Prieto will now have to summon supermajorities in both houses. And legislators will have to keep in mind the prospect of bucking 56% public opposition to wider gaming, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll.

In the end, Sweeney got what Prieto said he wouldn’t give: Exclusivity for current Atlantic City operators … for six months and for a minimum $1 billion investment. (If they fail, outside bidders would also have to pony up a minimum of $1 billion, preventing Prieto’s dreaded “slots in a box.”) “I don’t care who builds them as long as they get built in the right fashion,” Prieto said, sweeping his cave-in under the nearest rug.

Aside from MGM Resorts International, who in Atlantic City has that kind of scratch? Caesars Entertainment? It might as well close its Boardwalk casinos if goes rabbiting off after a north-Jersey one. (Using what for money, by the way?) Carl Icahn? Developing expensive casinos isn’t his style. Just ask Fontainebleau. Now, Glenn Straub and his pals at Hard Rock International might contend, if they can ever get Revel reopened, but Hard Rock is already in bed with Jeff Gural and Meadowlands Racetrack. Perhaps Boyd Gaming could swing the billion-buck commitment but why would it want to?

Also, could Steve Wynn or Sheldon Adelson make an end run around this by quickly buying an old clunker in Atlantic City (think Trump Palace or Revel) as a placeholder and grandfather themselves? It’s too soon to say but it wouldn’t be the most brazenly cynical ploy I’ve ever seen. It does seem to run contrary to the spirit of the new accord but how careful have Prieto and Sweeney been with the details? And would Icahn or the owners of the Golden Nugget and Resorts Atlantic City leap at the chance to buy low, sell high?

Despite the high vote counted needed to get this out of the Lege, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D) said, “I think it’s a 100% chance it will make it to the ballot. It has bipartisan support.” He’s going to have overcome obstacles like Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo (D, right), who’s going to “vote no, no matter what,” lest the bill harm his constituents in Atlantic County. Gov. Chris Christie (R) said it best when he remarked that “Nobody here is getting exactly what they wanted or what they asked for.” If Sweeney’s numbers pencil out, there will be $200 million in tax monies for Atlantic City (although the exact tax rate has not been hammered out), plus a gratuity for the horseracing industry.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R) was downright punitive in his attitude toward the Boardwalk. “These are the folks who have failed to capitalize on a monopoly. We’re going to take a revenue stream and give it to a place that has failed to do good things with the money it has gotten. We should not be rewarding failure,” he fulminated. On the other side of the aisle, state Sen. James Whelan (D, left) predicted that northern Jersey casinos would enjoy only a brief moment in the sun. “What happens to North Jersey casinos when New York City inevitably gets one? It is foolish to think that gaming in North Jersey would do anything but cannibalize an already saturated market in the same way that casinos in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland have cannibalized ours.”

* Flush with victory, Sweeney moved to urge a coup d’etat of Atlantic City itself. “There’s Atlantic City fatigue in this building … It’s like you have a house in foreclosure and you’re sitting on a pile of cash with assets you don’t want to sell,” he said, rationalizing his proposal for a state takeover. In the meantime, he demanded that the city sell Bader Field and (shades of Monopoly) its water utility, as a near-term fix. Glenn Straub, are you paying attention? Promising to continue making “hard decisions,” Mayor Don Guardian‘s administration said it would take a “wait and see” stance, leaving the ball in Sweeney’s court. Gov. Christie’s thoughts on the matter are unknown, pending his “State of the State” address tonight.