If we applied the concept of “dog years” to New Jersey gambling, the state would be a gray-bearded senior dog that gets people all misty-eyed during commercials.
Sorry for getting y’all all misty-eyed this early in the day, but seriously: New Jersey and gambling (and you), perfect together, in one form or another, for decades now.
As a result, this past year didn’t bring any earth-shaking news to the world of New Jersey gambling, but it doesn’t mean stuff didn’t happen either.
With that in mind, here’s a Lucky Seven list of the top gambling-related news items in the state for the year 2022. They’re presented in no discernible order, so feel free to argue amongst yourselves.
New Jersey is home to one of the nation’s, if not the world’s, most public-facing bettors: Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos. And ol’ Spanky got himself spanked this year by Bally’s, through which Sporttrade has its license.
For whatever reason — be it an old (dropped) charge of money laundering or just because they don’t like the cut of his jib — Bally’s banned Spanky from its properties, both brick-and-mortar and online. And because Sporttrade is connected to Bally’s, Spanky is also banned from Sporttrade, which normally prides itself on taking all comers as an exchange.
Not an ideal look for Bally’s here, and it certainly hurts the bottom line of Sporttrade. The exchange depends on big bettors like Spanky to make its money, which comes from commission instead of hoping bettors lose.
It seems to be a question of when, not if, smoking — and, for that matter, vaping — will be banned inside Atlantic City’s casinos. Lawmakers have the votes, Gov. Phil Murphy says he’ll sign the bill, but … the bill hasn’t been posted yet. The holdup? Well, no one’s saying, but it’s pretty obvious South Jersey politicians don’t want to upset the Atlantic City apple cart without at least tossing the operators a few Granny Smiths.
A better way to say that: New Jersey politics dictates tit for tat, and it hasn’t been hammered out yet, and in the end it probably means — somehow — taxpayers will suffer. It’s the New Jersey way.
New Jersey gaming regulators quickly stepped into the breach when there was some hinky betting in the lead-up to a UFC fight.
In short: The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement banned operators from taking any bets on fights that involve trainer (and former fighter) James Krause. The reason? Odds against his fighter, Darrick Minner, soared in the hours before his Nov. 5 bout against Shayilan Nuerdanbieke. And then 30 seconds into the fight, Minner was down, and 30 seconds later the fight was over.
Was there inside information floating around? The investigation is ongoing, but the DGE wasn’t waiting around to find out.
OK, we had to give you the “bad” Sporttrade news up above, but the good news is … they exist. Yes, Sporttrade — which basically allows you to buy and sell sports outcomes as if you were trading a stock — finally went live this year. And in an industry where complaints are the norm, it’s been all quiet on the Sporttrade front. People who use the service seem to love it, and it all started right here in New Jersey.
Online gaming will kill the casinos, they said. COVID will kill the casinos, they said.
Well, they were wrong, as this past July saw New Jersey’s brick-and-mortar casinos hit their biggest revenue number in at least eight years. It was a $299 million(!) month for the nine casinos. Not too shabby.
The horse racing world — long the domain of rule followers and good actors — saw another three people get sentenced for their role in one of the biggest horse doping scandals in history. Even Tony Soprano had more respect for horses.
And lastly, some good news from the world of the ponies: New Jersey became the first state in the nation to offer fixed-odds wagering.
Monmouth Park began offering the odds both in person and online in August, thus allowing would-be bettors to put $20 to win on Pie-O-My at 6/1 without fear of Soprano money coming in right before post to change the odds.
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