New Jersey voters rejected a plan to expand casino gambling on Tuesday to the northern part of the state.

They said yes to a question asking if every penny of the state’s 37.5-cent per gallon gas tax should go  transportation costs exclusively.

Ballot question 1, which was asked whether to legalize the construction of two new casinos in separate counties in the northern part of the state near New York City, had soundly been defeated.

The result had been a welcome reprieve for Atlantic City, where some gambling and business executives were scared of new in-state competition that could have lead to the closure of three to five of the city’s remaining seven famous casinos.

The question cannot be avoided before the voters ofr at least two years, but some legislators have already been considering a legally questionable plan to include slot machines to race-tracks at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford and Monmouth Park in Oceanport . It will be as soon as the next year by classifying them as “video lottery terminals” and representing them as a venture of the already-legalized state lottery.

By Prakriti Neogi