Albany ups power play; State, Legislature, NYRA announce mgmt. deal
 

State withholds NYRA casino payments and threatens racing franchise
By Matt Hegarty

Citing a "continued failure to act in the best interest of racing" by the New York Racing Association, state racing regulators said Tuesday that they had instructed the state lottery to immediately suspend payments NYRA receives from a casino at Aqueduct racetrack and that they were exploring the revocation of NYRA's racing franchise.

These politicians in NY have no shame.

None.. As foreshadowed a couple of weeks ago, Cuomo and henchmen continue to position themselves to take everything. Very sad. Meanwhile, the industry remains silent while the 30% of national handle for which NYRA accounts, hangs in the balance. The 'best interest' of racing invocation is comical. NYRA quit their land claim as part of the franchise renewal in an effort to avoid a protracted legal battle that might have included a shutdown. That wasn't in the best interest of racing? Every move from Albany is an intrusive, expensive burden on anyone that has an interest in the sport. They won't be happy until they destroy it.

Incredible, what a bunch of lying thieves that adorn the statehouse in Albany. Amazing that it doesn't bother these crooks that two of their own have been convicted of corruption in the last few weeks alone. There will be more to come. They all need to be thrown out!

If the standard is ethics and acting in the best interest of taxpayers, the entire NY Legislature should immediately be locked up as the biggest offenders. Shame on Sabini for signing off on this scam.

Easy for Me to Say
 

I wish we could leave out all public money,levies,taxes,support systems and make thoroughbred racing entirely privately funded and privately profitable
Long term I can't think of any state ran programme or oversight,controlled process that politicians have ran that has not ultimately ruined or made far less profitable.
Why can't the stuarts of our sport run it the same way they made millions in privet business?:mad::confused:

It was only a matter of time before legislatures removed the expensive horse part of the equation so they could get more money, no shock. NYRA just gave them a reason.

NYRA didn't give them a reason. They were going to find a reason no matter what was really happening. The funny thing is the NYRWB was supposed to know about the takeout reduction too, but they are being let off scot-free. If it wasn't that, it would have been jockey weight-gate or maitre d' gate or something else stupid. I'm not saying the takeout mistake was as minor as those, but in the grand scheme of things the amount was trivial.

True, in the letter they listed three bullet points so I am sure they were just waiting to pounce.

Looks to me like if the people at NYRA would have followed the terms as they agreed, and would have not ripped off the betting public, this probably would have been avoided... icing on the cake appears to be the promotion of the people who were at the helm when the takeout "issue" was going on.

Are they canning the entire NYRWB too?

I don't know, are they?

All I know is what is written in the articles and the documents. As an outsider, it doesn't look particularly good for the NYRA people. I realize most articles are written to sway perception in a certain direction.

NYRA just seems to be in a **** storm all the time...

Leave it to you to get the issue totally backwards.

They were knowingly stealing bettors money. Whatever happens to them and the franchise is well deserved. Each individual that was knowingly involved should also get jail time, starting with Hayward, and extending through the entire NYRA. Whether there is a political agenda or not, thats inconsequential. The fact is they were stealing, and knew they were doing it.

NY is the king of the handout states. Somebody has to pay for all the handouts you Liberals want so why not take over racing and rape it like they rape the rest of us NYer's?

The present NYSRWB will be gone in October as it will be merged with the Lottery commission. The new commission will have an executive director and 7 members to oversee the Lottery and Racing, with 5 of the 7 members picked by Cuomo.

I wonder if Frank Stronach heard about this yet?:D

Consequences for actions.....

Thanks so much for clarifying this. The dumbass that I am mistook this for glorified extortion by politicions seeing a window of opportunity and seizing it. And you present the perfect solution, simply insure we have republicans in office and this stuff would never happen... Thanks again.

If you hate NY so much, why don't you move someplace else? I hear Mississippi has a low tax burden.

Sure, let's do that. And the first thing that will happen is the tracks will get bought up by real estate developers and torn up.

Facts...
 

Please correct me if I am wrong but...

1. The NY State Legislature is the one who wanted (forced) the 1% increase from 25% to 26%. Wasn't NYRA opposed to the 1% increase?

2. One role of the Franchise Oversight Board has been to "monitor and enforce compliance with definitive documents that compromise the franchise agrement" and to "review and make recommendations concerning accounting, internal control systems..." also to "review such franchised corporation's revenue and expenditure policies" also to "review such franchise corporation's compliance with the laws, rules and regulations."

WE ALL KNOW THE LEGISLATURE IS JUST A MONEY GRABBING ORGANIZATION WHICH IS UNCONCERNED WITH THE GOOD OF HORSE RACING, AND THE OVERSIGHT BOARD SHOULD BE TAKING AT LEAST 50% OF THE HEAT/BLAME ON THIS AND THOSE MEMBERS SHOULD BE CANNED.

So The State should Underwrite?
 

Come on man,I said make it profitable!:eek:

A whole lot of government CYA going on. Here's the section from the RWB's interim report (pp. 17-18), as it pertains to the oversight provided by the Franchise Oversight Board:

The FOB has five part-time members serving without compensation. The FOB has no fulltime staff but has a Division of Budget employee serving as its secretary. As a practical matter, the FOB operates as a global overseer with a limited budget that relies heavily on NYRA’s representations, supported by NYRA’s employees, consultants and auditors. Realistically, with its limited resources, the FOB was in no position to review or enforce compliance with thedetailed takeout provisions of Chapter 115.

The Gov seems like a pathetic excuse for a human being.

Aqueduct should have put a synthetic surface on that inner track years ago, to show that they were trying.

You do realize that the people who sent NYRA the letter and ordered the lottery to withhold the money from NYRA are just as responsible, if not more, than NYRA for this error? Or are you just talking out of your a$$ as usual?

I wonder if the Inspector General is going to investigate the Racing and Wagering Board and the Oversight Panel as well to determine if there is any criminality with regard to their missing that the percentages should have been changed. Not likely to happen as this is clearly a witch hunt.

I want to believe that the majority of the horses that broke down, would have endured the same fate if they were running on bubble wrap.

I do think there is a bit if irony that the state of new york is upset that there was a "over taxing" of the people.

Of course it could have been that they did not rake the barn correctly, the reason belies the real motivation.

:wf

Another NY state agency that failed miserably in its "role" was the Department of Taxation and Finance, and I hope the IG looks into this as well. As a former pari-mutuel examiner for the Dept. at NYRA tracks, I was interviewed by the Albany Times-Union about this situation, and also by the state employee union in NY, PEF. Seems they decided they didn't need any examiners at the tracks any more - mistake!

Bottom line is that all the "watchdogs" were sleeping on the job, either to short-sightedly save money or, as some have suggested, to "entrap" NYRA into doing something like this in order to sweep them aside.

You're probably right but you know the old saying "image is everything."

That's true. Garden State Park, where I used to go often, is long gone, replaced by what South Jersey needed more of: strip malls. :rolleyes:

Of course they should be investigated for possible criminal collusion. We'll see.

No I am not aware. As I said in my posts on the subject, the writer of the article and the letter to NYRA makes it appear that someone is not being legit in the crux on the matter. Which in all reality, when dealing with politicians and boards and oversights and etc, most all are not legit.

At what point do you stop getting in bed with the state and run your business privately?

Once you accept the handout, or reimbursements, or whatever you like to call them, you are now dealing with the devil.

Was NYRA and their tracks a privately owned business at any point? With no state involvement or funding? If so, why is the state involved now?

State always had their hand in the various Associations pockets even pre-GNYRA (Greater New York Racing Association) when there were 4 separate entities. Albany has milked racing in this state endlessly and then added layers of patronage when afforded the opportunity in 1970 with the creation of the OTB system. At that point, by all rights, Albany began competing with NYRA and therein lies the source of all the problems the past 40 years.

Left at the Gate blog has a good post about this topic.

http://leftatthegate.blogspot.com/20...r-on-nyra.html

Excellent link. I personally think that NYRA should march into Court with an Order to Show Cause to obtain an Injunction against the State from withholding the payments. I really find it hard to believe that the State can revoke NYRA's contract on something like this.

This is clearly people CYAing and trying to use the media to shift the blame on NYRA and attempt to convince the public that it is the same old NYRA despite the reality that it is now run by a different set of people. As we have seen such nonsense works and even convinces some people who are supposedly fans of the game.

Priceless.. Sabini instructed NYRA to name new executives
 

NYRA STATEMENT – WEDNESDAY MAY 16

ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) Board of Directors exercised its business judgment as a private, not-for-profit corporation to appoint a President and Secretary. These appointments were made to stay in compliance with NYRA’s Bylaws, Article VII, Section 7.01. NYRA’s Board acted to insure that there was professional management in place to operate a complex business which has a significant economic impact on New York State. The NYRA Board has a fiduciary obligation to exercise its business judgment to protect the best interests of racing and the income stream that pari-mutuel wagering provides to the state.

On May 1, 2012 Racing and Wagering Board Chairman John Sabini sent a letter to the NYRA Board of Directors, which stated “…it is imperative that you provide an interim operational plan to the Board, especially who will be performing functions as Chief Executive Officer and Counsel.” This letter contained no indication of any concerns or limitations with respect to these appointments. The NYRA Board acted to name a President and Secretary without any knowledge of any concerns by either the Franchise Oversight Board or the Racing and Wagering Board.

Furthermore, neither the Racing and Wagering Board nor the Franchise Oversight Board has authority over the naming of officers by the NYRA Board of Directors.

The suggestion in the May 15, 2012 letter from Chairman Sabini and Chairman Megna that the NYRA Board and other NYRA executives have a potential role in the improper take-out investigation, thereby making the NYRA Board’s action inappropriate, is flawed. This reasoning would effectively paralyze the corporation based on innuendo. The Inspector General’s investigation is ongoing and there should not be a rush to judgment until a final report is issued, and due process is provided.

Quite something..

On May 1, NYRA is instructed -- implored in fact -- to name new executives to replace Hayward and Keogh...

Then 2 weeks later are admonished and threatened when they do so.

Anyone still confused by what's going on here?