NYC OTB: Court dismisses bankruptcy case..

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by 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.

Remember that the whole 'financially struggling' aspect of this situation is trumped up and phony. Assemblyman Pretlow outlined $40-50 million in cost savings for NYC OTB which has gone completely unaddressed and then there is the matter of the odious $12-$14 million surcharge that OTB cleverly doesn't add to their bottom line. NYC ORB was NEVER truly 'bankrupt'... other than morally.

Even with Sandy Frucher out of the picture, this entire episode gets back to his initial concept to skim more of the rake in OTB's direction. The reason it's important to keep the corporation intact temporarily, is for the thoroughbred/harness entities to get the ADW and phone accounts in their control and to buy time to re-organize the brick and mortar aspect for the future.

But do not forget that OTB's entire premise was a ruse from word go. And of course to your very valid point, one of the things Frucher was counting on was the argument that NYRA and the harness tracks didn't need as much from NYC OTB because of the alternative gaming revenue.