Premium Members  | Lottery News and Stories
Lottery sales suspended amid NJ budget shutdown
Monday, July 03, 2006 posted 11:52 AM EDT
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jerseyans couldn't buy lottery tickets on Sunday, but they could bet $2 on No. 6 to win in the fourth
race at Monmouth Park or double-down on a blackjack bet in Atlantic City.
That could all change after the long holiday weekend, however. An appeals panel on Sunday ordered race tracks to close at
the end of the day Tuesday and the head of agency that oversees gaming ordered Atlantic City's 12 casinos to shut at 8 a.m.
Wednesday if New Jersey fails to enact a budget by then.
As the state sputtered to a halt on its second day without a budget, gamblers still had some vices at the ready, though others
already had become casualties of a government shutdown that began Saturday.
Sunday marked the first full day since Gov. Jon S. Corzine closed state government amid a budget impasse with fellow Democrats
in the Assembly. The snarl forced the state to miss its July 1 deadline to adopt a new budget, leaving the state with no
means to spend money. Assembly leaders are locked in a caustic battle with Corzine over his plan to increase the sales tax
by a penny for every dollar spent.
The casinos have waged a court battle to remain open, and an appeals court was weighing the matter Sunday. However, there
was no word on when a ruling would be made, said courts spokeswoman Winnie Comfort.
The racing industry, meanwhile, was pleased to win a reprieve during the lucrative holiday weekend and hoped the budget deadlock
would be broken by Thursday, which could be Monmouth's first closed day.
"We are thrilled," said Dennis Drazin, lawyer for the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. "Now we're able to
finish the Fourth of July weekend in an orderly fashion, and it gives the state the chance to complete a budget."
Tracks and casinos both require state monitors to remain open. And if the impasse continues, Drazin said the horsemen would
be back in court.
|
| |
