The Super Bowl is coming to New Jersey in 2014. To capitalize on the worldwide event, some Garden State lawmakers are hoping to allow limited gambling at the Meadowlands by opening a 'pop-up' casino.

Rich Schultz, Getty Images
Rich Schultz, Getty Images
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Assemblyman Ruben Ramos is co-sponsoring a bill to permit the gaming.

He says, "It would be from Monday through Saturday, not the day of the Super Bowl itself, but Monday through Saturday for those six days to try and generate commerce for our state…..We thought the pop-up casino would be a great idea."

The bill provides that the Division of Gaming Enforcement in the Department of Law and Public Safety and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority will permit the operation of casino gaming, including slot machines and table games, at the Meadowlands Complex on a temporary basis from Monday, January 27, 2014 through Saturday, February 1, 2014, immediately prior to Super Bowl Sunday, by one or more holders of a license to operate a casino in Atlantic City.

The State revenues derived from operation of the casino pursuant to the bill will be used for the purposes currently prescribed by law for such revenues derived from casino gaming in Atlantic City, programs that help senior citizens and disabled persons, except that the gaming will not be subject to the investment alternative tax.

"This will give the Super Bowl more of a New Jersey feel to it as opposed to a New York City feel to it," says Ramos. "That's the goal and to really keep that commerce."

Ramos chairs the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee. The panel was to consider the bill yesterday, but Ramos says some technical issues need to be ironed out. He's still hopeful the pop-up casinos will be allowed.

Voters could also be asked next year to amend the constitution to allow the Legislature to enact laws to permit, from time to time, the establishment and operation of temporary casinos at the Meadowlands Complex in East Rutherford.

Currently, casinos are only allowed to be established in Atlantic City. The temporary casinos would be permitted at the Meadowlands only for a limited duration as the Legislature would specify by law.

A law that authorizes temporary casinos would also specify the type and number of such casinos, the games that will be played, and how the revenues derived from gaming at temporary casinos will be used and taxed by the State.

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