There’s still no sports betting in New Jersey, but the operators on Monmouth Park racetrack—which has been poised to open a sports betting parlor for the last year—still expect a good season.
“Monmouth Park has been doing pretty well over the last couple of years,” said Dennis Drazin, advisor to Darby Development LLC., which runs the track told wordontheshore.com. “I’m happy to tell you that we are now self-sufficient. It looks like from our 2014 numbers that we’ve reversed the losing trend and we will at least break even or show a little progress.
“We’re here to stay, there’s no one that’s going to close us down, there’s no one that’s going to put us out of business, racing will always be here,” Drazin said.
Monmouth Park has been in the news due to two separate moves to expand gambling in the state. The first is the attempt by the state to circumvent a federal ban on sports betting by allowing self-regulated sports betting at state tracks and casinos. The track has already built a sports-betting facility.
A federal appeals court is expected to rule on the state’s plan next month.
“Even if we lose, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will put down a road map telling us exactly how we get sports betting done in New Jersey,” Drazin said. “We’re hoping to offer real sports betting in time for the 2015-16 football season.”
The second is a move to build casinos outside of Atlantic City. Monmouth Park in Oceanport New Jersey wants to be considered as a possible site for a new casino. No casinos will be built outside of Atlantic City, however, unless voters approve it.
“There seems to be, finally, a political desire to expand casino gambling beyond Atlantic City and into North Jersey,” Drazin said. “I’ve been told by the politicians that support us that there have been commitments made to Monmouth Park that even though we may not get a physical casino here we would be protected with the revenue sharing.”
Monmouth Park officials have also said they plan to bring fantasy sports betting to the race track, but have not announced a plan to begin offering the service.
