TRENTON – Senators Paul A. Sarlo and Jennifer Beck today sought a framework for establishing a stable source of funding for the financially-threatened horse racing industry in New Jersey which faces slashed purses and stiff competition from neighboring states.
The two Senators today sought a meeting with the Casino Association of New Jersey which just finished a four-year subsidy program for the horse racing industry in which $86 million was provided by casinos in return for the State not establishing video lottery terminals or slot machines at racetracks.
Senators Beck, R-Monmouth and Mercer, and Sarlo, D-Bergen, Essex and Passaic, said new initiatives are needed now to save the horse racing industry.
“With the outburst of competition in neighboring states, New Jersey needs to develop a united front to preserve all elements of our gaming industry,” Senators Beck and Sarlo wrote in a letter to Joseph A. Corbo Jr., President of the Casino Association of New Jersey and Vice President and General Counsel at the Borgata in Atlantic City.
Seeking a meeting with the Association within the next two weeks, Senators Sarlo and Beck said they would broach the potential of the Atlantic City gaming industry for dropping its longstanding opposition of video lottery terminals in New Jersey.
CLICK HERE TO READ SENATOR SARLO’S AND SENATOR BECK’S LETTER TO THE CASINO ASSOCATION OF NJ