A state Assemblyman said that could be a plan if next month's north Jersey casino question fails at the polls.
TRENTON -- A state lawmaker has a backup plan if New Jersey voters reject next month's ballot referendum to bring casino gambling to the northern part of the state:
Installing slot machine-like gaming at the Garden State's racetracks.
Assemblyman Ralph Caputo said Monday that should the referendum fail -- as polls predict it will -- he plans to amend two bills he introduced earlier this year to authorize video lottery terminals at state tracks like the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford and Monmouth Park in Oceanport.
The Associated Press was the first to report on Caputo's proposals.
Caputo (D-Essex), a former casino executive, said the move could provide a much-needed windfall for the state's struggling horse-racing industry, as well as for the state.
"You could put in 5,000 machines," he said.
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But would voters in New Jersey -- where the state constitution allows gambling only in Atlantic City -- need to approve it? That's a key question.
Under the bills (A172 and A173) Caputo introduced earlier this year, voters would have to sign off on the machines in a new referendum. But the legislator said his amendments would remove that requirement.
That, Caputo said, is because the consoles wouldn't be slot machines.
"They look like one, they behave like one, but they're lottery terminals," he said.
Caputo said that would be allowed under a 1982 opinion from then-state Attorney General Irwin Kimmelman to the state treasurer saying New Jersey would not need to hold a referendum to amend the state constitution to allow video lottery terminals.
The opinion says "no constitutional or statutory bar to the incorporation of a consumer-operated video games terminal into, and to be made part of, the New Jersey State Lottery."
Instead, Caputo's bills would seek to overturn a rule signed by Gov. Tom Kean in 1983 that bans the state lottery from using such machines.
The state attorney general's office declined to comment.
The idea isn't new. A movement to add slots to racetracks in 2003 died and Caputo pushed a similar video lottery plan in 2010.
Under Caputo's measures, the state lottery would authorize the terminals and state gambling regulators would oversee them.
Proceeds would be used to pay prizes to winners, cover the state's expenses in administering the terminals, and give 18 percent of revenue to a fund for the horse-racing industry.
The concept has the support of horse-racing officials, who fear their industry could be crippled if the north Jersey casino question fails. The referendum would give a portion of proceeds from the casinos to the industry, and one of the proposed gambling halls would be located at Meadowlands Racetrack.
Dennis Drazin, an adviser to Monmouth Park, said industry officials plan to lobby leaders of the state Legislature to consider video lottery terminals.
"We are 100 percent behind it," Drazin said. "We've been talking about this for years."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.