New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says gambling will not be the “salvation” to any region’s economy. Christie spoke last night (Monday) at a forum in West Des Moines and a woman in the audience asked Christie for his “thoughts on…the expansion of gambling.”  “I’ve told anybody that asked me about the expansion of gambling that it’s no panacea and people really need to understand its restrictions and limitations,” Christie said. “And it’s not going to be a salvation and any politician that gets up and tells you, ‘Have gambling and we’re going to fund this forever,’ — It’s not going to happen that way.”

Last night’s forum was hosted by Republicans in Dallas County. It’s a county where voters have rejected gambling referendums twice, in 1996 and 2004. Christie says “for many years” gambling was a “growing, thriving industry” in New Jersey, but he says Atlantic City never adjusted to the “competitive marketplace” that erupted when gambling was legalized beyond the “monopoly” markets of New Jersey and Nevada.  “Now, I have no opposition to the industry itself,” Christie said. “They’ve been good corporate citizens in our state.”

However, Christie warned the country’s appetite for gambling is limited.  “I think anybody who tries to sell it to you now as a panacea is misleading you,” Christie said. State regulators recently approved a new casino license for Greene Cuonty and the new Wild Rose Casino is scheduled to open next summer in Jefferson.

Wild Rose founder Gary Kirke is among the seven major Iowa G-O-P donors who flew to New Jersey in 2011 to encourage Christie to run for president. Kirke also floated the idea of a casino in Dallas County back in 2004, but an overwhelming 61 percent of referendum voters were against the idea.

(Radio Iowa)