New York is planning to soon authorize up to three casinos in or near New York City, a move that is widely expected to seriously cut into a prime customer base for Atlantic City.

In an interview with The Press of Atlantic City on Wednesday, the Democratic governor said he realizes that allowing casinos somewhere other than Atlantic City will affect the resort.

But he also said his duty is to keep gambling money within the state’s borders.

“I have historically liked the notion that if it’s a zero-sum question between New York and New Jersey, I want the gaming dollars and the tourism and everything that goes with it on the New Jersey side, for sure,” Murphy said. “But I’m also conscious of what the impact would be on Atlantic City, as I have been since Day One.”

“As we meet in June, we’re in the sweet spot,” he said. “This place is humming. I don’t want to lose those dollars out of New Jersey, so I have to color myself open-minded, but with a very clear caveat that I need to understand how all of this impacts Atlantic City.”

New Jersey voters resoundingly rejected the idea of North Jersey casinos in 2016 by a margin of 80% to 20%.

But the idea never went away completely.

A pair of state senators from Bergen and Monmouth counties introduced in May a measure that would put the question before voters once again.

The bill from Sens. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, and Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, would specify that the casinos would open at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, just outside New York City, and at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, Monmouth County.

Both those facilities take sports bets in addition to offering horse racing.

“This plants a flag to send a message to New York State that if they open a casino in Manhattan, that New Jersey is ready to respond to the competition,” Sarlo said at the time. “New Jersey isn’t going to let gambling dollars in northern New Jersey leave our state for a casino in Manhattan.”

The language of the new referendum would read: “Do you approve amending the New Jersey Constitution to allow the Legislature to pass laws permitting casino games at the Meadowlands Racetrack and Monmouth Park Racetrack? The laws would provide for the types of games, regulate their use, and impose taxes on the associated revenue.

“The State’s revenues from taxes on the casino games would be used only for certain purposes. These purposes include property tax relief, special education, funding for the State pension systems, and assistance for the horse racing industry in this State. At the present time, casino games are allowed only in Atlantic City casinos.”

The bill specifies that 10% of the state tax revenue generated by the new casinos would be allocated “for the support of Atlantic City tourism.”

Murphy said allocating some of the proceeds from new casinos to help Atlantic City deal with the in-state competition has long been part of the discussion.

While internet gambling and sports betting are providing additional revenue streams for Atlantic City’s casinos, that money must be shared with outside parties including sports books and tech partners, and is not solely for the casinos to keep.

For that reason, the casinos consider money won from in-person gamblers to be their key business, and in most months, six of the nine casinos report they are still winning less from in-person gamblers than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several companies that operate casinos in Atlantic City are fighting to get one of the New York licenses — in essence vying to compete against themselves.

They include Bally’s, which plans a casino in the Bronx; Caesars Entertainment, which plans one in Times Square in Manhattan; and Hard Rock, which would build one next to CitiField, the New York Mets’ stadium in Queens.

Mark Giannantonio, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said his state needs to prepare for the inevitable.

“We know this is coming,” he said Wednesday. “Now is the time to really redevelop Atlantic City so that it’s able to attract a broader spectrum of customers. There has been progress, but now is the time.”

Jeff Gural, operator of the Meadowlands Racetrack, said Murphy is looking at the situation realistically.

“The governor is right: We need to keep that money in New Jersey, not going over the bridge,” he said. “That’s the reality.”

Gural predicted the most significant opposition to a Meadowlands casino will come from New York, not New Jersey.

He also said he is prepared “to pay a much higher tax rate than what they pay in Atlantic City.” He did not specify a percentage but said it would be comparable to whatever tax rate New York state adopts on its New York City-area casinos.

Murphy would not comment specifically on Sarlo and Gopal’s bill.

“But I want to maximize gaming dollars and tourism in the state of New Jersey, including in Atlantic City,” he said. “We’ve worked so hard to get Atlantic City to where it is; I don’t want to give that up.

“And at the same time, I don’t want to lose a lot of gaming dollars or tourism to New York when we could have kept it in New Jersey.”