Pressure on For Chris Christie

The pressure is well and truly upon New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and now the Poker Players Alliance are pushing him a little too. Gov Christie has until the 8th of February to make up his mind and just a few days ago PPA executive director John Pappas had the luxury of a 45 minute meeting with a senior council representative of Christie's to discuss how things were moving on, or not, as the case may be. The main theme of the discussion was how the online gambling bill would affect Atlantic City. Pappas stated that although the meeting went well he was still a little doubtful about the whole thing saying, "He didn't say how the governor was going to come down, although he did make some remarks that raised some skepticism and concern within our group that he may veto the bill." The choices left with Christie are as follows...he can veto the bill totally, he may offer a conditional veto that means amendments must be made, he could sign it, or he can allow the bill to pass without action. The PPA are reaching out to all of their members who reside in the Garden State to call the Governors office and give their support to the bill, as at present received calls to the office are from people against the bill. Pappas also said that Facebook and Twitter can play a part and that those for the bill should be using any tool possible to get their voices heard. It is no secret that Atlantic City has to do something fast in order to survive with revenues down for six years in a row now. PokerStars purchase of the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel would help but that deal may not go through if the bill isn't signed and jobs will be lost. Pappas shared his thoughts on the economic impact the bill would have saying, "It's an economic no-brainer, they've tried several ways to save Atlantic City the last few years and none of them have worked. Everyone is telling him this is the way to give Atlantic City a lifeline so they can save themselves." With no signature on the bill and with time passing by, other states are quickly catching up and indeed overtaking the Garden State in this area and again, this could have large economic effects. Pappas stressed that the important thing was to get the bill signed and then work on other areas such as problem gambling and the logistical aspects of the bill with these things done in tandem with implementation.