Harness racing at the (new) Meadowlands should and can be saved. It is a supreme product that enhances New Jersey's hard-won international reputation, just like Atlantic City, the Izod Center and the new Meadowlands Stadium do.
In view of the proliferation of casinos and racinos in Pennsylvania, Delaware
conditions besides voter approval.
There will be no expansion of gambling to include sports betting. The facility should be a world-class destination, unique, glamorous, chic, emblematic and monumental. For example, somewhere in North Jersey we might consider a structure like Luxor in Las Vegas. Alternatively, a casino can be housed in a connected series of spectacular golden geodesic domes, glistening, futuristic and appealing.
Perhaps the best thing New Jersey can do to solve the riddle of gaming is to put a first class hotel/casino in the U.S. the steamship United States. Currently berthed in Philadelphia, it has been saved from destruction by philanthropist H.F.
Gerry Lenfest who has donated up to $5.8 million to cover expenses of mooring and maintenance for 20 months beginning in January.
The great liner is a national treasure, with 550,000 square feet of usable space for rooms, retail, museums, conventions and casino slots and tables. Outfitting it results in an instant world-class monument befitting our state. Let us have a competition of the best architects and engineers to shape the interior in stunning ways.
Payback should be swift. I would not capsize the ship with a cargo of 5,300 slots, (as in the Yonkers warehouse-casino), but rather, with an offering of at most 1,000 to 1,200, which could return as much as $90 million per year.
The only fitting place to moor the ship would be in New York Harbor as yet another symbol of Jersey's global status (and independence from New York). The deep-water terminals at Bayonne seem ideal for this purpose.
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