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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowNew Jersey has launched sports betting.
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy kicked off a new era of gambling in the state, making the first official bets on Thursday morning at Monmouth Park, a racetrack in Oceanport near the Jersey Shore.
He placed two $20 bets — one on Germany to win soccer’s World Cup and another on the New Jersey Devils to win next year’s Stanley Cup.
New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court case last month that cleared the way for all 50 states to offer sports betting should they choose. Indiana supported the suit.
The Borgata casino planned to start taking bets 30 minutes after Murphy made his.
Other casinos and tracks eventually plan to offer sports betting, but none has announced plans to do so in the next few days.
Murphy’s wager had echoes of 1978, when then-Democratic Gov. Brendan Byrne threw the first dice at an Atlantic City casino with entertainer Steve Lawrence.
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