New Jersey recently became the second state to launch a regulated sports betting service following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) earlier this year.
The legality of fully sports wagering will see Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey soon beginning to accept sports bets. There are 15 million people living within 20 miles of the Meadowlands.
Jeff Gural, the owner and Chief Executive of the northern New Jersey track, told the Associated Press that he intends to begin offering sports betting on 15th July 2018.
Gural went on to say that the failure of neighboring New York to pass sports betting this year will enhance business at the racetrack. He also said that New York gave him a tremendous gift by not passing sports betting and that it leaves him the entirety of New York City, Long Island and Westchester County.
The Meadowlands has partnered with Betfair US to offer sports betting at the track. Betfair is a subsidiary of Paddy Power Betfair which is one of the largest publicly traded sports betting companies in the world.
Gural also revealed that although sports betting will help the track’s bottom line, it will not, by itself, save the horse racing industry in New Jersey which is struggling against neighboring states that subsidize their tracks. He added that New Jersey tracks previously received $30 million a year from the state’s casinos, but those payments were ended by former Gov. Chris Christie in 2011.
