New Jersey Racetrack Shutdown Angers Gamblers
At first, the news that the state government had shut down was little more than an abstraction to many New Jersey residents, especially coming as it did before a long Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Then the state canceled the evening's horse races, and not long after, lottery machines stopped spitting out tickets. And the mood turned sour.
George Gunn, 41, came to the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, only to find the races were off.
"I can't smoke, I can't bet. I'm going to go to Russia and be a Communist," he said. "I just got here. They ruined my whole night. I came for a little excitement."
Willie Griffin, 58, came two minutes too late to buy lottery tickets at Gene's Liquors in Paterson. He plays the same numbers every day: 1947 (the year of his birth), 254 (part of his Social Security number) and 769 (which came to him in a dream). He said he normally spends $12 to $14 on tickets a day.
"If they could make it an hour later, they could make more money," he said. "My numbers will probably come up tonight."
State officials said the interruption of the lottery and horse racing is more than just a matter of people having two fewer ways to gamble. The state stands to lose $15.4 million per week in revenue from the lottery alone.
As of Friday, the state had collected $844,000 in advance ticket sales for lottery drawings that will continue to be held over the next month, even though no new tickets will be sold during the shutdown. Those drawings are Pick 3 and Pick 4 (tickets can be bought one week in advance), Jersey Cash 5 (tickets can be bought three weeks in advance), and Pick 6 and Mega Millions (tickets can be bought four weeks in advance).
But parks, beaches and casinos remained open and operating yesterday, providing refuge on a humid day in which temperatures reached the high 80's.
July 2, 2006
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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