No Surprise: North Jersey Casino plan junked

An overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters on Tuesday thumbed down a ballot proposal to allow casinos outside Atlantic City.

Ballot question number 1 took a beating in the polls as 79 percent of New Jersey voters trump 21 percent of those who are in favor of amending a state law that will pave the for the expanded gaming in the Garden State.

Proponents have been expecting that the ballot will die come November 8 since most surveys have predicted that it will sure face a resounding defeat. The last survey conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind in October predicted that 70 percent of voters opposes another state casino hub.

“We are disappointed, but not surprised, by tonight’s result. We have seen for some time now that the people of New Jersey were unhappy with the lack of details on this issue. We do not view the failure to pass Question #1 as a rejection of gaming expansion, but as a rejection of our state’s current political climate and a failure to have all the facts presented to them,” Paul Fireman and Jeff Gural, the founders of OUR Turn NJ, said in a statement, according to The Observer.