It’s been a long and winding road, but on Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy finally signed into law a bill permitting fixed odds wagering on Monmouth Park thoroughbred races. The bill, which passed unanimously in the State Senate and Assembly in late June, clarifies the rules on odds that have been offered on occasion in the state since 2018.
“You just have to be patient with these things,” Monmouth Park operator Dennis Drazin told NJ Online Gambling. “This is really a step in the right direction.”
In parimutuel betting, a gambler could bet $100 on a horse at 10-to-1 only to see the odds dip to, say, 5-1 just the race begins. With fixed odds, that bettor would get paid off at the 10-1 price, regardless of whether the final parimutuel price was 5-1 or 15-1.
That puts betting on “the ponies” in line with the experience of sports bettors at the FanDuel Sportsbook at the Meadowlands Racetrack, or at the Caesars (formerly William Hill) Sportsbook at Monmouth Park.
“The old system of parimutuel betting is antiquated, and this is one of the most exciting innovations in horse racing in many years,” prominent New Jersey lobbyist William Pascrell III told NJ Online Gambling.