HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAExecutive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, EditorMonday, December 20, 2010MERRY XMAS! M’LANDS LIVES!The guy in the Santa suit is Jeff Gural,whose knowledge and know-how as one ofNew York City’s biggest real estate magnatesconvinced even Chris Christie, thegovernor of New Jersey, to give the Meadowlandsat least three more months of life.Christie agreed not only to let Gural seethe Sports Authority’s books on the Meadowlands,but also loaned Tom Luchento’sStandardbred Owners and Breeders Association$1.2 million to keep the trackoperating until April 1. If Gural has notput together a leasing group by that time,the game is over, and the horsemen willpay back the $1.2 million with incomefrom simulcasting. Gural has big ideasfor the track, and has breeders Mike Gulottaand George Segal as initial partnersin the venture. If all goes well, he plansto build a new, smaller grandstand on theMeadowlands backstretch and sign a fiveyear,$1-a-year lease on the track. He toldharnessracingupdate.com that he thoughthe could make the deal work, saying, “It’sgoing to require an industry effort. Theindustry is very splintered, but this is anopportunity to bring it together. We needto come up with a model that is going tocreate customers for harness racing. Ifnot, where are we going?” Gural says hewill need to trim operating expenses, butwas able to get a grip on what handle,revenue and operating costs are. “I amvery pleased that their revenue wasso high. It’s roughly $30 million.”WHERE FROM, AND WHERE TO?Folks in New Jersey are accustomed tothe influence of Atlantic City on doings inTrenton and Princeton, but the latest regulatoryreform proposal, scheduled for avote in the Senate today, is puzzling. GingerGibson, writing for NJ.com, says criticsclaim the legislation “could expose thegaming resort to corruption and weaken asystem of oversight that has been used asa model around the globe.” Although Gov.Christie calls the proposed bills “the bestof the state models that we’ve seen,” twomen who fashioned Atlantic City’s oversightlaws 33 years ago decry them. One,former state senator Steven Perskie, saysthe new rules not only risk keeping themob from infiltrating the casino industry,but could politize a system designed to beindependent. “To do what this bill does,”Perskie says, “which is to throw everythingup against the wall, is in my view amistake.” The proposals would eliminatesome levels of oversight and give the casinoseven more liberty in tracking and reportingcash movement. James Wortman,a former director of the office of gamingeducation and research at the Universityof Houston who was a casino executivein the 1980s and 90s, called some ofthe changes “stupid and scary” and said,“Taking away the commission’s ability toreview and license employees, raises therisk of unqualified and unscrupulous peoplecounting the money or overseeing itsmovement, inviting fraud.”