Atlantic City Casino PILOT Challenge Must Enter Mediation or Litigation Soon

The controversial Atlantic Ocean City cassino tax visor passed past the New island of Jersey Legislature and signed past Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in December is beingness contested by Atlantic County. type A jurist this hebdomad gave the state a Jan 13 deadline to get in into mediation with the county or respond to the judicial proceeding past moving to court.

New island of Jersey Superior Court Judge Joseph Marczyk believes mediation is inwards for each one party’s best interest. Atlantic Ocean County is thought-provoking the nation agreeing to walk out iGaming and online sports betting revenue from the Nina from Carolina casinos’ one-year property tax calculation.

Under the 2016 PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-tax) terms, the casinos are to pay a collective prop task sum total that is based on the prior year’s amount revenue gaming revenue (GGR).

The recent legislative change to the PILOT deliberation will outcome in Atlantic County missing come out on millions of dollars of revenue enhancement revenue that it would get otherwise received below the archetype terms.

Decision Needed

New Jersey’s Office of Legislative Services estimates that Atlantic Ocean County will receive $4 jillion less yearly below the revised PILOT. County officials say the keep down is likelier around $5 trillion to $7 million.

Marczyk hopes the land and county canful find a declaration without moving to court. Attorneys for the 2 sides met this week before the judge. Marczyk gave the state until next Thursday to make up one's mind whether to set aside the courtyard to appoint an main(a) mediator sanctioned past the parties, or go inwards its defense of the county lawsuit.

We are going to attempt to have a closure that is in the best interests of everyone,” Atlantic Ocean County Executive Dennis Levinson said Tuesday. “The young PILOT, the path it is written, is only inward the topper interests of the casinos.”

The casinos contend that much of the iGaming and online sportsbook revenue goes to third-party operators, such as DraftKings and FanDuel. Those entities, the casinos contend, don’t have got much peel inward the spirited when it comes to Atlantic City’s future.

Since the GGR is generated online, with most of the litigate occurring remotely out of doors of Atlantic City, the casinos say that income shouldn’t live tacked on to their prop revenue enhancement bill. Outgoing commonwealth Senate President Sir Leslie Stephen Sweeney (D) agreed. He championed the PILOT fitting on claims that as many as tetrad casinos are at risk of infection of closing without some sorting of task break.

Repeat of Last Year

December numbers are ease existence tallied. But through and through 11 months of 2021, GGR from cyberspace gaming trading operations totals more than $1.23 billion. Reducing that identification number from the PILOT computation testament gash the gambling casino assess bank note from $165 meg to $110 million.

Atlantic County testament obtain roughly the same amount inwards 2022 that it did in 2021. But in conclusion year’s county allocation was computed on down(p) casino revenue experienced during the 2020 height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Atlantic County receives 13.5 percent of the yearbook PILOT money.