Let’s get ready to gamble!
New Jersey casinos and racetracks — as well as sports gaming fans in the New York metropolitan area — are bracing for the possibility that the Supreme Court as early as Tuesday could give the Garden State the OK to begin taking bets on nearly all athletic games.
The widely expected move by the high court will end a more than six-year battle by state lawmakers to bring much-needed financial relief to Atlantic City and horse-racing tracks.
If legalized by the court, sports gambling could bring in roughly $9 billion in annual revenue to the state, according to one estimate — triple the $3 billion annual take from the state lotteries and thumping the $2.68 billion net 2017 revenue from Atlantic City’s seven casinos.
“This law will jump-start the casino and racing industries, and that will save thousands of jobs,” former state Sen. Ray Lesniak, who spearheaded the initiative over nearly a decade, told The Post.
New Jersey has been prepping for sports gambling for years — since shortly after a Nov. 8, 2011, vote to change the state constitution to allow sports betting.
At the Monmouth Park racetrack, just an hour’s Uber ride from Midtown, Dennis Drazin has built out a 300-seat sports book operation and promises to be open for business two weeks after a favorable Supreme Court ruling.
