- Monmouth Park in New Jersey is searching for a on line casino license
- The horse racetrack opened a Caesars Sportsbook final yr
- New Jersey voters would want to vote in favor of casinos at racetracks
A New Jersey horse racetrack is searching for the state’s permission to redevelop the property right into a mixed-use vacation spot with a on line casino resort, youth sports activities advanced, and a whole bunch of flats.
The Caesars Sportsbook at Monmouth Park opened on Nov. 21, 2025. The trackside sportsbook has indoor and outside seating, with greater than two dozen betting kiosks and a Shake Shack. (Picture: Caesars Leisure)
Monmouth Park Racetrack is a storied venue in Oceanport, NJ, that’s house to the annual Haskell Invitational. The observe is owned by the state by means of its New Jersey Sports activities and Exposition Authority (NJSEA), however is operated by businessman Dennis Drazin’s Darby Improvement.
Drazin, alongside along with his improvement companion, Morris Bailey, the actual property government who owns Resorts On line casino Resort in Atlantic Metropolis, has unveiled plans to remodel Monmouth Park into an leisure vacation spot. On Tuesday, Drazin introduced the mission to the Oceanport Planning Board.
Darby Improvement is suggesting that, ought to the state enable it, a on line casino with two resorts come to Monmouth Park. The scope moreover requires 5 baseball fields for youth sports activities, indoor paddle courts for tennis and pickleball, and 485 residence items.
Native Signoff
Since Monmouth Park is owned by the state, Oceanport officers don’t have a proper say on the mission. Nonetheless, the Planning Board, as reported by the Asbury Park Press, was general supportive. The one pushback got here regarding the flats, with Mayor Tom Tvrdik saying it might trigger an excessive amount of congestion.
Your entire plan is contingent on what’s seemingly a far-fetched concept to develop on line casino playing outdoors of Atlantic Metropolis by means of a statewide poll referendum to amend the New Jersey Structure.
In 2016, voters simply rejected a proposal to permit casinos in cities not less than 72 miles from Atlantic Metropolis. The query was defeated by a margin of 77% to 23%.
Senate Concurrent Decision 31 seeks to permit casinos at Monmouth Park and The Meadowlands in Bergen County. The proposed legislatively referred constitutional modification, nevertheless, sponsored by Sens. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris) and Joseph Cryan (D-Union), hasn’t moved from the Senate State Authorities, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee, the place it was despatched for preliminary assessment in January.
The same invoice, Senate Concurrent Decision 66, authored by Sens. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) and Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), has equally been shelved in the identical committee.
Path to Poll
New Jersey regulation requires that proposed constitutional amendments like SCR31 and SCR66 acquire 60% assist in each chambers of the state Legislature. At this juncture, there appears to be little urge for food among the many state Senate or Meeting to debate the on line casino growth measures.
With three downstate New York casinos coming to the Bronx and Queens, the consensus in Trenton is that further competitors would solely additional harm Atlantic Metropolis’s future.
SCR31 features a provision to guard the 9 casinos in Atlantic Metropolis. As written, 30% of the state tax income collected from slot machines at Monmouth Park and The Meadowlands can be “allotted proportionately to members of a consortium of on line casino license house owners and operators working in Atlantic Metropolis.”
