Not long ago, New Jersey authorities announced that they will provide the struggling Atlantic City-based casinos with a tax relief also known as the collective tax payment. The news was well received by most casino owners but executives of one of the venues stated that the new bill is going to do more harm than good.
Managers of the Golden Nugget said that according to their estimates, the new bill will increase the sum they usually pay annually. What is more, they threaten that they will do their best to prevent the bill from coming into force and “blow this whole thing up”.
Yesterday, Golden Nugget representatives revealed some more information about the problematic bill and the reason for their resentment. Their point is that the proposed “tax relief” actually increases the taxes the Golden Nugget, Resorts and Bally’s are supposed to pay.
They considered the bill to be advantageous to the bigger casinos while the smaller ones are not getting any benefit.
According to Golden Nugget officials, Harrah’s, Tropicana, Borgata and Caesars are given unfair tax breaks while smaller venues are left to deal with their issues on their own.
Steve Scheinthal, general counsel of the venue, told the media that the bill, proposed by Steve Sweeney, is unfair towards the not so big casinos.
Scheinthal said that Sweeney aimed at taking from the poor and giving to the rich. He also added that currently, the Golden Nugget is paying approximately $4,7 million but once the new bill passes, the taxes will be drastically increased to $8,1 million annually. Anyway, he said that they are going to take matters to court.
Tilman Fertitta, Golden Nuggets’ owner, is believed to request the court to block the implementation of the new regulations if the Governor Chris Christie gives his consent to it.
Scheinthal said that he has already discussed the complicated matters with Sweeney’s representatives who assured the counsel that the amendment that was introduced will definitely be in favor of the small casinos.
Surprising or not, most officials involved in the tax affair remained tight lipped. Sweeney’s spokesperson was reluctant to immediately comment on the situation while spokespersons of Trump Entertainment Resorts and Caesars Entertainment refused to answer any questions.
Scheinthal commented that Sweeney’s assistants have applied a special formula for estimating how much each of the remaining casinos in Atlantic City is supposed to pay. They dared to say that these were “pretty darn good” calculations.
In conclusion, Scheinthal said that expectations are for a fair legislation. Although nobody believes local authorities can harm the casinos by taking inadequate actions, unfortunately, it seems like that is exactly what they are currently doing.
