New Jersey Wants to Seize Your Unused Gift Cards

If the state gets involved in this, something they have absolutely no business in, then it is open season on all of their citizens.
These cards were issued by the retail establishments, not the state. While it is a well known fact that many of these cards are lost and never redeemed, the profit from that should go to the entity that issued the card. They had to fork over money to purchase the cards and process them, they worked the issue of "overages" into the equation when making the decision to offer them.
This is one of the reasons you should not purchase gift cards, they are too easy to misplace or lose.