The Impact of the First Year of NJ Legal Sports Betting

Steve Adubato sits down with Dennis Drazin, CEO of Monmouth Park Racetrack and Chairman & CEO of Darby Development LLC, to review the first year of legal sports betting in New Jersey and the impact it has had on the state.

7/20/2019 #316

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to welcome Dennis Drazin, CEO Monmouth Racetrack, and also Chairman and CEO of Darby Development. Good to see you Dennis. Good morning. Good to see you again. Thank you for having me back. Yeah we are taping in the morning. Here at NJTV Studios. A question about this. Sports betting, legalized sports betting, happened when in New Jersey? You know, we've been operating for a little over a year now. Last June, we took our first bet. Governor Murphy came down to Monmouth Park, made the first bet, there were thousands of people there. And it's like a dream come true. We were in court for seven years, trying to get to that day. Kept losing at every level. And then the United States Supreme Court, in May, gave us a victory. And New Jersey has moved forward expeditiously. How many states now? Legalized? It's growing. But you know, right now, there are a handful. And I think that within the next five to ten years, you'll probably see at least two thirds of the states... As we do this... sorry for interrupting Dennis. As we do this program, folks, in the Summer of 2019, New Jersey versus Nevada, the gambling capital of the world? Still? What? Where are we? The last month was a good month. New Jersey beat Nevada. So New Jersey has, in the one year since sports betting began, handled $3,000,000,000 in revenue. Define handled, versus the tax revenue that comes into the state. So handled is how much is being wagered. And the tax revenue depends on whether you're betting in a brick and mortar facility, because, you know, racetrack, or online. The rate is different. But the state has taken in close to $25,000,000 in revenues from sports betting. Do you expect that to grow? I do. I think New Jersey... Because? ...will be one of the leaders in the country. Our demographics are so much stronger than Vegas. What does that mean? Well when you look at... We have more people that want to gamble, basically? Yeah. When you look at the population. We... first of all, gambling on sports, you know, in this country has been a $400,000,000,000 illegal industry for years. So it's not that it's out there and it didn't exist. It's out there and it was being done by offshore companies, crime families... That's right. So now it's legalized. So... With no tax revenue? Correct. So now it's legalized, and you'll see more and more of the revenue that was illegal shifting to legal, safe markets. We won't put the bookies out of business, because they'll still have a market for them also. They can do things..."