Casinos in Atlantic City will shut down at 8am Wednesday because of a budget crisis in New Jersey that will shut down many "non essential" government agencies. Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed an executive order on Saturday shutting down the state's government, for the first time in its history.

Those "non essential" services include the regulators who oversee the casino operations. Atlantic City's 12 casinos, which cannot operate without state regulators in place, have been ordered by the state's Casino Control Commission to close at 8am Wednesday morning. The New Jersey lottery was closed on Sunday and the State's racetrack closed down Monday.