New Jersey is known for their horse racetracks. They have the Atlantic City Racetrack, the Meadowlands, and Monmouth. This time of year is very lucrative for the tracks; they have the Hambletonian at the Meadowlands and the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth, both of which bring in large crowds and lots of betting. But then August is over, and everyone except the scant few regulars leave until next year. This is where NJ is in trouble. 

But they think they have the answer, they want to bring in slot machines. If only the Atlantic City casinos and politicians would start thinking the same way, they might actually have a chance at getting them. New York and Pennsylvania have already started the process of getting slot machines in at their racetracks - that is into the ones that don’t already have them. If New Jersey were to bring in slot machines into their tracks, they would save the business from going over the state line. They need a yearly income, not just a one month income out of the year – and slot machines can do that for them. If they don’t bring them in, once they are up and running in NY and PA, the horse industry will leave the state, as they follow the money. As Leon Zimmerman, a lobbyist for the New Jersey Standardbred Association, which represents nearly everybody who works in harness racing, says, "Horse owners follow the money." 

The horsemen have challenged that without the slot machines added, the horseracing business in NJ will be all but belly up. More than 80,000 acres of horse farmland will be lost, as well as more than 6,200 jobs. They are also angry that some of the slot machines that are being installed in NY and PA are owned by Atlantic City casino owners, and that they are stabbing them in the back by assisting other states before their own. The casino owners say that if they allow the horse racetracks to get slot machines, that it will damage the amount of people coming into Atlantic City, and that the racetracks don’t need the amount of money that will come in from the slot machines. Southern NJ legislatures are dead set against any slot machine gambling outside of Atlantic City.

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