TESTIMONY
BY TOM LUCHENTO
President
of the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey
Before
the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee
Hambletonian
Room, Meadowlands Racetrack – July 19, 2012
GOOD AFTERNOON LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN:
My name is Tom Luchento, and
I am president of the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New
Jersey. I represent the drivers, trainers, breeders, owners and
caretakers who compete at the Meadowlands Racetrack and Freehold Raceway and
owned tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the Garden State.
Before the Meadowlands
opened in 1976, we were a modestly successful industry, with pari-mutuel racing
at Freehold and fair races held in communities throughout the state. It
was the world of Ferris Wheels and cotton candy. If we had a good horse,
we crossed the Hudson to race him at Yonkers and Roosevelt Raceway.
With the opening of the
Meadowlands, we flourished. We were a destination for fine food,
state-of-the-art facilities and the premier horses and horsemen in the
industry. Stallions and broodmares followed, making New Jersey the
nursery to many of the sport’s top competitors for more than three decades.
Racing in New Jersey has a
history that dates back to Colonial days, and it remained the only legal form
of gambling for a couple of centuries. But the 1970s also brought two
forms of competition into play – the first lottery ticket was sold in December
1970 and the first casino opened in Atlantic City in 1978.
Over the last few decades,
Atlantic City opened a dozen casinos and the state lottery’s one drawing a week
mushroomed into Pick 3s, Pick 4s, Pick 5s, Pick 6s, Instant Games, Mega
Millions and Power Ball. Between them, they sucked away enough of our
gamblers to turn the Meadowlands from North America’s flagship racetrack for the
harness racing industry to a track that is struggling to stay afloat thanks
largely to the expansion of gaming in racinos – the name for racetracks with
casinos – in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Those of us in racing
learned a few things from all this. Any expansion of legal gambling, even
that within our state, is going to negatively impact us unless we are partners
in that gaming. And, secondly, our friends in the casinos and lotteries
were smart enough to realize that you need to offer the bettors a lot of
different forms of gaming to keep their attention.
All we are asking for is the
chance to resurrect horse racing by offering a full menu of gaming options,
especially slots and table games, in our facilities.
The horse racing industry
needs not promises but an action plan that will bring gaming to the Meadowlands
within the next two years. Without the added revenue from slots machines,
all facets of racing in this state are in extreme danger. Farms will be
sold and paved over, breeding stock – stallions and mares – will leave the
state, and the top horsemen will move to states for slots-fueled purses.
It’s not a threat for the future. That exodus has already started.
The stated reason we have
been told that we do not have slots while the tracks in surrounding states like
Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York do, is the concern about the economy of
Atlantic City. Whatever damage that might result from a racino at the Meadowlands
has already been inflicted by the racinos and casinos in those surrounding
states. There is no empirical data to prove the Meadowlands would
substantively hurt Atlantic City. All we are suggesting is that betting
money needs to be brought back to New Jersey. The Rutgers study counted
license plates and New Jerseyans have taken their action to those other states
rather than make a longer trip to Atlantic City. There is little reason
to think Atlantic City will reclaim those convenience gamblers. The
Meadowlands site offers that convenience for millions of gamblers in the
northern half of the state who are spending their entertainment dollars in the
surrounding states.
We do not plan to compete
with Atlantic City’s “destination” resort strategy. The Meadowlands
racino would be a stand-alone facility like those in Pennsylvania, Delaware and
New York. By the way, both Pennsylvania and New York now have surpassed
Atlantic City in betting.
Unlike the casino owners who
have, in some instances, invested in the border state casinos, we only serve
one master – the state of New Jersey. We want to bring back the cash to
New Jersey, save the jobs in our industry and preserve open space.
The State of New Jersey is
missing out at anywhere from $500 million to a billion a year in revenue.
Although we wish Atlantic
City great success, we do not always believe that those feelings are
reciprocated. But really, we are all one New Jersey. Why should
anyone’s job in South Jersey be valued more than a job in North Jersey?
Contrary to what some have
said, racing did not take subsidies from the casinos – it took what was,
bluntly, a payoff not to pursue slots. Now that those funds have been
withdrawn, we have neither the slots nor the funding to support our purse
structure. Until we have assurances that we will get slots within the
next couple of years – not start the process in two years – we will continue to
suffer as an industry.
Breeders have a lead time of
three years, horsemen follow the money, and we’re losing both. Initially
it was in slow drips, now the floodgates are opening. We need to be able
to ask for patience from the people in our industry not because of an
expectation of slots revenue but with a firm promise that the process is
underway with a goal of implementation within the next two years. We need
a game plan, not just promises.
We’re prepared to go to
referendum to move this along. The public has already expressed its
support. Failure to act on slots at the Meadowlands flies in the face of
the position the public has already voiced. It also condemns our
industry, a significant one in the State of New Jersey, to its demise, taking
with it thousands of jobs and much of the 170,000 acres of equine related
farmland in this state.
We support Assemblyman
Caputo’s bill, ACR53, which would authorize the establishment of casinos in
Bergen County by 2013.
We believe the public’s
opinion should be heard and that the expansion of gaming options, including new
forms, be placed before the voters in a referendum. The beneficiaries
should include the horse racing industry, with the majority replenishing the
state’s treasury.
We know this hearing is a
fact-finding opportunity for you. We also hope you hear our call to
action. We cannot afford the delays that have arisen for partisan and
regional concerns. We need to do what is best for all the citizens of New
Jersey.
--Submitted by Carol Hodes for SBOANJ
