Rush on for casinos to start sports bets before football

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey gambling regulators are warning casinos to submit their plans for sports betting by Monday or risk not being approved in time for the start of football season.

David Rebuck, director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, told The Associated Press on Sunday he has directed the Atlantic City casinos to get their sports betting applications in by the end of the day on Monday. The division first notified the casinos of that timetable on July 9.

The warning also includes plans for internet and mobile sports betting, which no casino in New Jersey has yet been approved to offer.

Casinos that miss the deadline run the risk of not having their sports betting operations tested and approved in time for the start of football season in early September.

"They've got to give us a reasonable amount of time to evaluate and test all this," Rebuck said.

He said gambling operators have been aware since January that the gaming enforcement division would test and approve individual applications as they came in, and not all at once like it did with the start of internet gambling in 2013.

Rebuck said some casinos had not submitted their sports betting platforms for testing as of a week ago, while others are further along in the process.

The NFL season begins on Sept. 5 with a Thursday night game between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles. That is followed by a full slate of Sunday games on Sept. 9.

So far, four companies are offering sports betting in New Jersey: the Borgata and Ocean Resort casinos in Atlantic City, and Monmouth Park racetrack in Oceanport and the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, which began taking bets Saturday.

The two casinos and Monmouth Park took in $16.4 million in sports bets during the first two weeks it was legal in New Jersey in June.