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New Jersey Mayors Push for Slots at Tracks

"The mayors, through the New Jersey League of Municipalities, are leading supporters of proposals to put video slot machines in racetracks as a way to help bridge the state's $5 billion budget gap, help control property tax increases, and help the tracks offer fatter purses to horse owners and trainers.

"But the plan would first have to overcome die-hard resistance from Atlantic City casinos and their South Jersey champions in the Legislature, who maintain that the state constitution allows casino-style gambling only in Atlantic City.

"But proponents of the slot machines believe they have an answer: although they may look like slots and sound like slots, the new machines are designed to fly under the radar of the state ban -- New Jersey law requires a public referendum on conventional slot machine gambling outside Atlantic City. The machines operate like lottery games, similar to "instant winner" scratch cards, and lotteries can be played anywhere, their backers point out, including at racetracks, where the machines would raise $400 million to $600 million a year in new revenues for the state, by state estimates.

"…So far, the casino industry and its champions in the Legislature have been adamant that the video lottery terminals would be illegal in the state, and have vowed to resist their installation.

"…The casino industry has kept a low profile on the matter while the issue is still at the debating stage in New Jersey. Perhaps the most hopeful group watching the debate in New Jersey are the owners and trainers of racehorses. They complain that they have seen the best horses go to tracks in other states, notably Delaware and West Virginia, where the tracks' share of video lottery revenues have fattened race purses…"

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