SENATE STATE GOVERNMENT, WAGERING, TOURISM & HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2330

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 14 2018

The Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 2330.

     Under current law, persons who have been convicted of certain drug offenses are ineligible to apply for a casino key employee license and a casino employee registration. Some of these drug offenses are eligible to be adjudicated through special probation under N.J.S.A.2C:35-14. Among other criteria, to qualify for special probation, a professional diagnostic assessment must find that the person who committed the offense is drug or alcohol dependent and would benefit from treatment. Special probation serves as an alternative to incarceration by allowing the person to complete a residential or non-residential rehabilitation program or process that could last up to five years.

     As amended, this bill provides that the Casino Control Commission cannot deny a casino key employee license, and the Division of Gaming Enforcement cannot deny a casino employee registration, to any applicant who has been sentenced to, and successfully discharged from, a term of special probation as provided under N.J.S.2C:35-14 for the conviction of an offense involving a controlled dangerous substance, an imitation controlled dangerous substance, or a controlled substance analog. This bill, as amended, would also prohibit the division from revoking an existing casino employee registration of such an applicant.

     The following crimes on the list of disqualification criteria under N.J.S.A.5:12-86 would no longer disqualify a casino key employee or casino employee applicant if the applicant was successfully discharged from a special probation program with respect to those crimes: N.J.S.A.2C:35-5 (manufacturing, distributing or dispensing a controlled dangerous substance or a controlled dangerous substance analog which constitutes a crime of the second or third degree); N.J.S.A.2C:35-7 (distributing, dispensing or possessing a controlled dangerous substance or a controlled substance analog on or within 1,000 feet of school property or bus); N.J.S.A.2C:35-7.1 (distributing, dispensing or possessing a controlled dangerous substance or a controlled substance analog in proximity to public housing facilities, parks or buildings); N.J.S.A.2C:35-11 (distribution, possession or manufacture of imitation controlled dangerous substances); and N.J.S.A.2C:35-13 (acquisition of controlled dangerous substances by fraud).

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS

      The committee amended the bill to reflect that the Division of Gaming Enforcement is responsible for casino employee registrations.