NYC OTB: Court dismisses bankruptcy case..

[Rudeboyelvis]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...paign=20101201

[Princess Doreen]

GTFO!

your tagline.

[randallscott35]

The horror...No OTB

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

wtf..if spitzer can be on cnn .cant the otbs stay open?

http://www.drf.com/news/new-york-otb...friday-closing

[richard]

Shut this parasite down . No more bailouts for thieves .

[Cannon Shell]

Does the $120k a month guy keep getting paid after they shutdown?

[pointman]

Does anyone know whether the Aqueduct races will be broadcast to NYC residents if there is a shutdown?

[Mustanada]

Originally Posted by pointman

Does anyone know whether the Aqueduct races will be broadcast to NYC residents if there is a shutdown?

From what I understand NYRA rangled the OTB channels in NYC

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by richard

Shut this parasite down . No more bailouts for thieves .

Without insulting you or anyone else that is confused by the equation here, "What bailout"? How is 'bailout' invoked in the state senate simply OK'ing a restructuring of OTB's statutory payouts and the move of its' ADW and phone-a-bet system to the harness/thoroughbred tracks? Because that's all that is necessary here. There is no taxpayer money involved in what is required of the senate buffoons in Albany to finalize these proceedings.

[Kasept]

Latest..

New York OTB talks continue
By Matt Hegarty

Leaders of the New York Senate remain in negotiations with legislators in an attempt to build support for a bill that would allow the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation to cancel a plan to close at the end of Friday, officials for the legislature and Gov. David Paterson said on Thursday.

[richard]

NYCOTB should be sold to private interests so that all monies owed will be repaid and paid on time in the future . I don't appreciate tax payers money being drained by a corrupt public entity . God forbid NYCOTB was given a chance to run the Aqueduct Casino .

The Big A racino was put up for bid and so should the NYCOTB .

[Kasept]

http://www.drf.com/news/new-york-otb...delay-shutdown

NYC OTB Board will delay shutdown until outcome of State Senate deliberations next Tuesday...

[richard]

It is over due that horse racing becomes itself and stops feeding those that have nothing to do with the sport .
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan;
"Tear this wall down Gov Paterson. The money belongs to the owners and the investors in this sport ."

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by richard

It is over due that horse racing becomes itself and stops feeding those that have nothing to do with the sport .
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan; "Tear this wall down Gov Paterson. The money belongs to the owners and the investors in this sport ."

Maybe Steve Crist can explain the situation to you better since you insist on ignoring any attempt to be educated on the topic:

http://www.drf.com/news/getting-rid-...te-bigger-mess

(NOTE: To ensure it is read, I'll leave this up in its' entirity for a portion of the day only. Generally, unless receiving permission, articles cannot be exposed whole. Snippets and links meet copyright law expectations...)

Getting rid of New York OTB would only create a bigger mess
By Steve Crist

NEW YORK – By the time you read this, New York City Offtrack Betting may or may not have shut itself down, whether for a few days or longer, or it may have extended its latest closure threat until the state Senate returns to Albany on Tuesday. The possibility of a permanent shutdown is already prompting approving cries of “good riddance” from newspaper editorialists and some within racing who have long considered OTB a blight upon the sport.

While such hostility is understandable given NYCOTB’s decades of dismal performance and service as the nation’s largest bet-taker, the blood lust for its demise is poorly timed and based on persistent misconceptions about how racing works. Even if you have no sympathy for the 1,000 employees who would be thrown out of work (happy holidays!), the fact remains that shutting down NYCOTB now would be counterproductive and leave an even bigger mess than the one that currently exists.

It would be bitterly ironic if this were the one among many shutdown threats to be real because NYCOTB is on the verge of a semblance of short-term stability. A reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy has been approved by its creditors and passed the state Assembly last week, but has yet to be put up for a vote by the state Senate, which has agreed to reconvene Tuesday to consider the matter. Not surprisingly, not every faction of the industry is holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” over the plan, with other regional OTB’s and some harness tracks leading the opposition.

Opposing the bill is a negotiating ploy by these opponents to get some better terms for themselves, but it’s a dangerous game of chicken. Simply abandoning OTB will create a free-for-all for its customers, which can’t possibly end well for the state. It’s nice that the operators of Aqueduct were planning to provide free bus service to the track, hot dogs, and soda for OTB customers if the parlors went dark starting Dec. 4. The reality, however, is that far fewer OTB customers will become regular trackgoers than will give their business to out-of-state national bet-takers or simply find a new and more convenient hobby.

Much of the appetite for letting OTB expire is fueled by the constant refrain from the general press that OTB is a money-losing proposition that is being propped up with “taxpayer money” that would otherwise be feeding the hungry or repairing schools. The New York Post, in an editorial last Wednesday eloquently titled “Let This Nag Die,” said “Lawmakers should just let it die. . . . The sooner OTB is shuttered, the sooner the bleeding will stop.”

NYCOTB is funded entirely by its commissions taken from horseplayers, not by any government support. The company’s creative accounting, designed to make it look perpetually impoverished, has always ignored mandated direct payments to state and local government and given rise to the falsehood that it loses money and is being propped up at taxpayer expense. A premature shutdown will cost government and the industry millions in lost revenue, not stop any bleeding.

The New York Daily News, which has long complained about the “subsidies” to racing that it claims have impoverished OTB, said the next day that “This OTB meltdown must finally force a fundamental rethinking of horse racing in New York [which] should start from the premise that state government should no longer be directly involved in taking bets on ponies. . . . Put the OTB franchise up for bid.”

That may all sound especially good in the current anti-government, tea-partying atmosphere, but it’s a pipedream. The state government will remain bound to racing for decades if not forever – the New York Racing Association is in only the third-year of a 25-year franchise.

Selling NYCOTB to private interests has been tried several times and there has never been a real offer because potential buyers quickly realize they’re bidding on a phantom. What are you really buying if you buy NYCOTB, given that the state government regulates everything from hours of operation to which signals you’re allowed to take, and the rules change with each election cycle.

Neither the state nor the racing industry can afford to let NYCOTB simply shut its doors and disappear, scattering badly-needed customers and revenue to the wind. The State Senate instead should pass the current bill, whatever its shortcomings, while a better and more permanent long-term plan is developed.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Maybe Steve Crist can explain the situation to you better since you insist on ignoring any attempt to be educated on the topic:

You are attempting to enlighten someone who quoted Ronald Reagan?

[richard]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

You are attempting to enlighten someone who quoted Ronald Reagan?

LOL, I was trying to be the straight man to add to the conversation of the thread . Think of me as Dino .

[freddymo]

Crist raises plenty of intelligent, cogent, and well thought out points as usual.. I wonder if it really does matter what happens to NYCOTB?
It's a dinosaur within 10 years the need for brick and mortar betting establishment will be over. In all fairness to the workers it would be smarter to phase the operations completely out over the next 3 years. Then perhaps all interests could be managed?

Let's face it, in 9 months when the VLT money starts to flow NYRA and the NY Racing industry will be the "new" land of racing Milk and Honey. The State nor anyone else racing in NY will give a dam about national change. All involved in the sport, as well as, the State will garner the fruits of the slot players losing money. The question araises what motivation will anyone racing in NY have to get behind the issues that besiege racing nationally, when there MDN Spls will be 85k and there 15 claimers will be racing for 50k?
Anyone think NY horseman are going to support less racing or stronger restrictions with 700k being given out daily?

[parsixfarms]

I completely get the rationale behind this plan given the current situation. However, if you consider the precedent that it sets as far as "financially struggling" OTBs reducing payments to the industry and if you read between the lines of the statements coming from the Senate Republicans, the other regional OTB corporations are soon going to be asking for similar reductions in statutory payments to the industry. If that happens, in a roundabout way, a portion of the money from the Aqueduct racino deal that was earmarked for the racing industry will just end up going back to OTBs/government.

[NoLuvForPletch]

Originally Posted by freddymo

Crist raises plenty of intelligent, cogent, and well thought out points as usual.. I wonder if it really does matter what happens to NYCOTB?
It's a dinosaur within 10 years the need for brick and mortar betting establishment will be over. In all fairness to the workers it would be smarter to phase the operations completely out over the next 3 years. Then perhaps all interests could be managed?

Let's face it, in 9 months when the VLT money starts to flow NYRA and the NY Racing industry will be the "new" land of racing Milk and Honey. The State nor anyone else racing in NY will give a dam about national change. All involved in the sport, as well as, the State will garner the fruits of the slot players losing money. The question araises what motivation will anyone racing in NY have to get behind the issues that besiege racing nationally, when there MDN Spls will be 85k and there 15 claimers will be racing for 50k?
Anyone think NY horseman are going to support less racing or stronger restrictions with 700k being given out daily?

I suppose the thought of Woodbridge, NJ type OTB's doesn't appeal to you, but it does to some, and even to me sometimes. Yes, the $hithole on 48th and 6th sucks but the restaurant/bar like places are well worth spending an afternoon in. I would think there is a way to have a place like the one on 38th and 7th, with something for everyone. I guess, with Genting coming to AQU the atmosphere will be one that is enjoyable, but Belmont's fall meet leaves much to be desired in regards to "spending the day".

[Kasept]

New York hearing will explore merging regional OTBs into one entity
By David Grening

In the wake of the shutdown of New York City Off-Track Betting Corp., a hearing will be held next week to explore the possibility of merging the state's five remaining regional OTB's into one entity. Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, the chairman of the Committee on Racing and Wagering, has called for the hearing, which will be held Wednesday in Albany.

"The purporse of this hearing is to evaluate the economic impact on merging all of the regional OTB corporations into one single entity in order to cut duplicable adminstrative and operating expenses, maximize the benefit these entities were originally created to provide, and to ensure that the quality of New York's racing product remains intact," Pretlow said in his notice of the public hearing.

Many in the racing industry have long called for the consolidation of New York's OTB system, but given that the system has been a haven for political-appointed jobs, the matter has never advanced.

In recent legislation put forth by Senate Republicans, the five regional OTBs were seeking similar concessions from the racing industry and state that would have been provided to New York City OTB in legislation passed by the Assembly, which has been in bankruptcy since December 2009. Among those concessions were reductions in payments to state and local governments as well as to the racing industry.

The New York Racing Association, whose races the state's OTB network needs to survive, claimed that passage of the Senate Republican bill -which never made it to the floor for a vote - would have put NYRA out of business.