Jeff Gural, chairman of Newmark Grubb Night Frank, said he took over the struggling Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey with an eye towards building a casino at the site.
But a lot still has to happen for that dream to come true.
“My bet was Atlantic City was going to fail,” said Gural at a recent B’nai B’rith event while discussing his decision to buy the struggling track. “I didn’t think it would fail as badly as it did, but my bet was it was going to fail because Atlantic City is so greedy they don’t want to see any competition in the north, even though they know that it’s ridiculous to have all of your casinos in one town.
“They have a lot of political power,” said Gural. “But what we’re proposing is to pay a much higher tax rate and to use the money to help Atlantic City. Even with that proposal they’re against it. But had they been successful, I think it would have been almost impossible to get a casino in the north.”
Currently, state politicians are debating whether to put a public referendum on the November ballot to allow casinos to be built outside of Atlantic City. There is also a move to hold off on a referendum until 2016 when the presidential election will bring out more voters.
“It’s been a struggle,” said Gural, “but I suspect that we’re in the homestretch of whether they’re going to decide to put on the ballot in November a referendum that would allow gambling outside of Atlantic City. Hopefully it will and then, hopefully, I’ll be able to get that license. It’s really a crapshoot, but if I hit it, it will be a home run.”
If voters did approve more casino construction on the state, the Meadowlands would only be one of several sites in the state seeking a casino.
