FINLEY: Politicos, OTB biggest threat to NY racing

[asudevil]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Spritzer is an easy scapegoat, but don't forget that Delaware North fumbled the ball at the end of 2008 as well when they suddenly couldn't come up with the franchise fee down payment in the teeth of the 'credit crisis'.

And if we're using a wide angle lens on all of these issues, the mother of all villains would be conspiratorialist George Pataki. It was under his auspice that the Lottery Division kept refusing to rubber stamp MGM's deal as the VLT operator as several cohorts planned to foist the franchise away from NYRA. (How did that work out for you Joe Bruno?) Everyone seems to forget all that was happening from 2005-2008.

That's the biggest shame.....In hindsight an MGM/NYRA partnership would have been incredible. Talk about the marketing opportunities.