Atlantic City: Crime and Corruption

The brief summary below highlights the shortfalls of Beacon Hill's pending casino legislation. Although echoes of the false promises of "We'll do it right" can be heard, the focus is misplaced on slots at the race tracks, which are "No Bid" rewards to vested interests.

Beacon Hill has failed to assure the integrity, credibility and transparency required.

House Speaker DeLeo crafted legislation behind closed doors with Industry input.

Senator Rosenberg did much the same, with the Senate President's blessings.

The Conference Committee has excluded the public and the media.

Both proposals offer glaring flaws that require correction for public protection.

It's time for Beacon Hill shelf the process.


Atlantic City: Timeline of events since casino gambling became legal

GAME OVER

A timeline of key Atlantic City events since casino gambling became legal, culminating in a state takeover:

May 26, 1978: Less than two years after voters agreed to amend the state constitution to allow casinos in Atlantic City, singer Steve Lawrence, accompanied by Gov. Brendan Byrne and other dignitaries, throws the dice at Resorts Casino Hotel to open New Jersey’s first legal gaming hall.

1984: The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is created to funnel casino money into public improvements and housing. To date, the agency has spent $1.8 billion on more than 400 projects statewide.

March 1984: Mayor Michael Matthews loses a recall election to James Usry. Matthews later pleads guilty to one count of extorting $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a developer tied to convicted crime boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and enters federal prison in December. The former mayor serves 51⁄2 years and works as a golf director at a country club upon his release.

May 1989: Elsinore’s Atlantis Casino Hotel, the former Playboy, becomes the first casino to close, four years after creditors forced it into bankruptcy. As dealer Stan Kowal dealt his last hand, more gaming regulators were in the casino than customers, and gamblers were saying "Good luck" to Atlantis workers. Other casinos, including Resorts and Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal, will survive bankruptcies.

July 1989: Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), a co-sponsor of the law that legalized gambling in the state, is among legislators calling for the state to step in after Atlantic City Mayor James Usry and more than a dozen others are arrested on corruption charges. Most of those charges are later dropped.

June 1990: Gov. Jim Florio gives a speech in Atlantic City but dodges reporters’ questions about the possibility of a state takeover of the resort. Takeover talk subsides after Jim Whelan, now a Democratic state senator from Atlantic County, wins the mayoral race — ousting the then-indicted Usry.

December 1991: Usry admits taking $6,000 in campaign cash without intending to report it and enters a pretrial-intervention program. Taking that course allows his record to be expunged.

July 1992: An early wave of what is to become ever-increasing competition emerges for Atlantic City as more than a dozen states authorize casino or riverboat gambling — or are thinking about it. Atlantic City’s main competitor has been Las Vegas, but from now on, competition, economic downturns and the failure to establish a destination resort will cripple the city’s efforts to prosper.

August 2005: Down on their luck, Miss America officials announce they are waving goodbye to the city. They are leaving the resort in the rear-view mirror more than 80 years after local merchants started the famed pageant as a way to extend the summer tourism season.

November 2006: The Sands Hotel and Casino, where Frank Sinatra sang in his final years and comedian Jerry Seinfeld got his start, closes. It is only the second casino to close for good since the state legalized gambling in Atlantic City.

February 2010: Gov. Chris Christie warns Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford to "get his house in order" after a state audit finds $23 million in government waste, including 11 aides to council members earning $485,000 a year. Langford says things aren’t as bad as the audit suggests. Christie says he will use "gentle persuasion" rather than a state takeover, calling a similar action in Camden a mistake.

Wednesday: Gov. Chris Christie is expected to announce plans to take over the Atlantic City casino and entertainment district and sell-off or shut down the struggling Meadowlands Racetrack.

Sources: Star-Ledger archives; Encyclopedia of New Jersey; New Jersey Legislative Manual; Casino Reinvestment Development Authority website; Resorts Casino Hotel website; the Associated Press.