Casino Connection Atlantic City

A bill passed in the New Jersey Senate last week changes the prohibition against casino employees running for public office in Atlantic City. This ancient ban has resulted in the sad state of affairs in which Atlantic City found itself over the past 10 years. The truly talented people who live in Atlantic City include many casino employees, who have been discriminated against for more than 30 years. By not allowing casino employees to participate in politics, you got one-third of the members of City Council jailed for bribery. You got five of the last six mayors getting indicted for one issue or another. You got lawsuits flying from every former city employee because they had no where else to go.

So that’s why I was so hopeful that finally some sense had come to Atlantic City. Finally, casino employees would get the respect they deserved, and the city would be able to tap a much deeper pool of talent to run its government.

That was until I read the bill. This measure is a travesty and continues to disrespect the fine people who run the casinos in Atlantic City. They are telling us we’re not good enough. By continuing to prohibit casino employees and executives from running for the office of mayor (limiting their service to City Council positions), the bill is yet another slap in the face to people who have been given the most stringent oversight by the state government when they are granted casino licenses. To prevent them from running for mayor (or governor or state legislator, for that matter), the state is telling casino employees that they are not trustworthy enough to fill those positions! Does the state prohibit New Brunswick executives with drug companies located there from running for governor? Are tourism employees prevented from holding the mayor’s office in Cape May? NO! There is no difference, as a one-industry towns, between Atlantic City and those two examples.

Once again, the state legislature doesn’t do the entire job. For that reason alone, I will not support this bill. I have already contacted by representatives to tell them that they should oppose this measure until it removes ALL political restrictions on casino employees. There is no other group of people in the state who operate under these restrictions and because of the continued inference that casino employees are more susceptible to corruption than any other employees, I stand opposed.

Some people remind me that the Hatch Act prevents government employees from many forms of political participation, but that is understandable. After all, if your boss was running for office, you would want to make a nice campaign donation to show him how much you support him. So the Hatch Act as much protects civil service employees as prohibiting them from participation. Not so with the casino-employee prohibition.

The lies told about casino employees who are residents of Atlantic City and about the city of Atlantic City are enough to infuriate me. Yes, Atlantic City has had its problems. But no more so than Newark, Camden or Trenton! To insinuate that Atlantic City residents (including casino employees) are incapable of running our own affairs is insulting.

Some people tell me it’s one small step; that we’ll take the bigger steps once we “prove” ourselves trustworthy. Well, I don’t think we have to prove ourselves. And if casino employees aren’t trustworthy, after being vetted by the state, what makes them think a few years as council members will change anything?

No, it was a good effort, but falls way too short. For that reason, the bill should be rejected.