“I'm waiting and biding my time to see New York get up and running and what the reaction is from the people from northern New Jersey,” he says. “I’d be very surprised if there isn’t a casino in the Meadowlands in a couple of years.”
To get a sense of how a Manhattan casino might siphon gambling revenue away from the Garden State, look no further than mobile sports betting. In February, a month after, New Jersey’s sports betting revenue was an anemic $31 million, a 33% drop compared to February 2021. Through August, year-to-date sports betting revenues in New Jersey have seen double-digit declines.
Bill Pascrell III, a partner at Princeton Public Affairs Group, a New Jersey-based lobbying firm focused on gaming, says there’s a “spot-on chance” that New Jersey will allow at least one casino upstate to protect its tax revenue. He thinks when New York opens its downstate casinos, there will be enough economic “leverage” to convince voters and stakeholders that a casino in North Jersey is necessary, or else “Atlantic City's gonna sink.
Dennis Drazin, the chairman and CEO of Monmouth Park racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey—about an hour south of New York City—says that nothing would make him happier than opening a casino on his grounds. Caesars already operates a sportsbook on the first floor of the Monmouth Grandstand, Drazin notes, so it would be a natural extension to add slots and table games. He also believes that New Jersey has no other choice.