Quote:
Originally Posted by freddymo
Actually the next step is assign a mechanism to pay the 500plus million in liabilty the State incurred when NYCOTB closed.
I like you am pleased that NYRA has been so successful rectifing many of the OTB ills. How much you think the State should garnish out of the VLT earn due horseman for the OTB liablty? Money has to get paid from somewhere right? It's not fair and its totally unjustified but it is what it is.
|
Freddy, I don't disagree with you with VLT's as they are not a panacea for racing, but it has to be put in perspective for the necessary evil it has become. When a business is doing better than its competitors on a level playing field and then suddenly the competitor gains a signifcant advantage that the business is not allowed to have itself, it goes without saying that the competitor will win on the unlevel playing field. There is no better example than New Jersey who has seen its main competitors in Pennsylvania, Delaware and soon to be New York and Maryland gain VLT's, the New Jersey tracks are no longer on a level playing field. Couple that with the fact that New Jersey appears beholden to Donald Trump and the other AC casino owners trying to maintain a monopoly that no longer exists, New Jersey racing's survival is doomed if it cannot compete on the same field. I agree that contraction is necessary and the VLT's at many tracks are only delaying the inevitable for those that should not survive.
My point was that NY Racing has had a stranglehold on it for 40 years that similarly made the playing field unlevel solely for the purpose of NY State siphoning money for its coffers, OTB. The NY OTB model has created a competitor for NY racetracks right on their own turf instead of allowing the racetracks to survive, profit and adjust to the changing technology and business model necessary to attract todays horseplayer and run a successful racetrack. Thankfully for NY Racing, NYRA has an opportunity to attract much more of the business that they put on at a much cheaper cost while cutting out the middleman, these are all things that contribute to changing a business model to a more successful one which in NYRA's case in the long run can be the difference between losing money or making enough money to sustain its product without any help from the State which has robbed it blind for 40 years.
As far as the liabilities that OTB created, I disagree that they should fall on NYRA. The State legislators created OTB, the patronage, the lavish union contracts and benefits that led to the only bookie that went bankrupt and are just as responsible for finding a way to pay for the mess they created, instead of sticking it to the operations they robbed blind in order to steal money from the racing industry to keep alive their inability to stop spending money. What is nice to see is the opportunity that NYRA has to demonstrate the business can succeed without the biggest shackles it has had, even if some do remain, and even nicer to see NYRA quickly and eagerly pursuing those interests.