Legalized sports betting means 'survival' for Monmouth Park

The Supreme Court of the United States of America will on Monday, to some extent, decide the future of Monmouth Park racetrack when it rules on the case to legalize sports betting in the State of New Jersey.

Since 2012, New Jersey and Monmouth Park were unsuccessful with their case in court several times. The goal is to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) that essential closed the door on sports betting in all but Oregon, Montana, Delaware, and Nevada.

Monmouth Park is in the center of the Mid-Atlantic region, which has a high concentration of thoroughbred race tracks. There is the NYRA circuit to the north with the best racing in the country conducted year-round at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga. While to the south, it is Parx Racing, Delaware Park, and the Maryland tracks of Laurel, Pimlico, and Timonium.

On an even playing field alone that is a lot of competition, but Monmouth Park is the only one of those aforementioned tracks that is not aided by casino gaming of some sort. Monmouth Park cannot use casino games because of its proximity to the Atlantic City casinos. For many years, the Atlantic City casinos were obligated to pay subsidies the Oceanport track, in a sense paying to keep the track from pursuing casino gambling.

Then in the midst of Chris Christie’s governorship, New Jersey severed all state ties with Monmouth Park, including the subsidies from Atlantic City. For the past several years, the state's only remaining thoroughbred track was left with no viable way to compete with the surrounding racinos. Thus, Monmouth Park turned to sports betting as an alternative income source.

At a Nov. 21 press conference at the track, Dennis Drazin, a prominent New Jersey attorney, thoroughbred owner, and the CEO of Monmouth Park who has spearheaded the tracks effort to save the track, said, “Sports betting for us is survival.”

Drazin went on to talk about the kind of money that would be available to the racing industry in New Jersey, which supports about 13,000 jobs.

“The sports betting market based upon statistics that are available on the low side is $150 billion to the high side of $400 billion," he added. "It is going on every day and it will continue on whether people like it or not. New Jersey’s market is about $10 billion a year.

"We believe Monmouth Park’s share of that market is about 10 percent of the entire state and that the money that’s generated from sports betting for the state and the racing industry would help us become competitive with other states.”

The current wave of optimism that Monmouth Park and the New Jersey casinos will receive a favorable ruling from the nation’s highest court comes from the fact that the SCOTUS decided to hear the case even after the U.S. solicitor general’s office recommended that they not take it. Apparently, this is a very unusual occurrence and usually leads to the Court taking some kind of action. It would seem unusual if the court took on the case just to rule against it again.

This final appeal focuses just as much on individual state’s rights and not just on sports betting itself. Recently appointed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is apparently a staunch supporter of state rights.

“The good news is the Supreme Court took the case,” Drazin said. “We are very optimistic, given that at this point you probably have a one in 10,000 chance of getting to the Supreme Court. When you get to that level, usually about 78 percent of the time the Court does something to either change the law or modify the law or give us an opportunity to be successful. I firmly believe that New Jersey will be successful.”

Odds have improved that the New Jersey racetrack will get the chance to generate the supplemental income it needs to survive. Monmouth Park is betting its future on it.