Meadowlands announces sports betting startup
ATLANTIC CITY — The Meadowlands Racetrack plans to bring legal sports betting to New York City’s doorstep next month.
Jeff Gural, who manages the northern New Jersey track, said that he plans to begin offering sports betting on July 15. That’s significantly earlier than a timetable the track laid out just over a week ago when a competing track and an Atlantic City casino became the first in New Jersey to take sports bets following its legalization.
The development came as New York state adjourned its legislative session Wednesday without adopting a sports betting bill, leaving its vast population base available for the Meadowlands track, which Gural predicted will quickly become the state’s busiest sports betting outlet.
“New York did me such a favor by not passing sports betting,” Gural said. “That leaves me the entirety of New York City, Long Island, Westchester County. There are 15 million people that live within 20 miles of the Meadowlands. They gave me a tremendous gift.”
It would be a gift for his New Jersey track, anyway; Gural also owns the Tioga Downs track in upstate New York, and was counting on sports betting to help revive it.
New York’s failure to act gives
New Jersey at least a short-term advantage: many of the customers expected to place sports bets at the track will come from New York, yet the tax money sports book operators are charged on those bets (9.75 to 13 percent, depending on where and how the bets are placed) will go to New Jersey.
New Jersey gambling regulators confirmed Gural’s timetable to begin offering sports betting, calling it doable. So far, Monmouth Park racetrack in Oceanport, near the Jersey shore, and Atlantic City’s Borgata casino are the only ones in New Jersey offering sports betting.
The Ocean Resort Casino, formerly known as Revel, will become the third on June 28 when it reopens on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. The Meadowlands would be next in line just over two weeks later.
New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court case in May clearing the way for all 50 states to legalize sports betting if they desire. Delaware was the first state to do so after the ruling; New Jersey was close behind.
The Meadowlands has partnered with Betfair US to offer sports betting at the track. It is a subsidiary of Paddy Power Betfair.
Gural said sports betting will help the track’s bottom line, but added it will not, by itself, save the horse racing industry in New Jersey, which continues to struggle competing against neighboring states that subsidize their tracks. New Jersey’s tracks used to receive $30 million a year from the state’s casinos, but former Gov. Chris Christie ended those payments in 2011.