NYC-OTB: Understanding the phony 'crisis'

[mes5107]

UPDATE: Bankruptcy filing 12/09




From the DRF

Originally Posted by DRF

New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation will file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection on Thursday afternoon and seek to cut the amount of money it pays to the racing industry as part of its restructuring.
....
The company estimates that it will have a $40 million deficit by the end of this year, Frucher said, and will run out of cash in March.

How about installing an OTB with a profitable business model?

[freddymo]

Originally Posted by mes5107

From the DRF



How about installing an OTB with a profitable business model?

A lot of people would be it in a heart beat. They pay the employees (full timers) a lot relative to the job function and the benefits are sick and costly.

[philcski]

They have the only legal betting operation in the country's biggest city, charge EXTRA takeout, have incapable employees and mostly horrible facilities (outside of the restaurants and teletheaters) and are finding a way to lose money. They should be shut down and rebuilt from the ground up. There are so many corrupt hands in the NYCOTB pot it makes me want to puke!!! Maybe bankruptcy will add some transparency to their ever growing list of wasteful line items that will be purged in bankruptcy emergence.

[Stall Mucker]

Be interesting to see how a bankruptcy judge handles state legislative mandated payments that NYC is supposed to pay NYRA.

[freddymo]

Originally Posted by Stall Mucker

Be interesting to see how a bankruptcy judge handles state legislative mandated payments that NYC is supposed to pay NYRA.

This really takes the cake:
As for whether the legislature will embrace OTB's plan to change the statutes governing the company, Frucher said that the state or New York City will face a $600 million charge to completely fund the company's liabilities if they do not agree to a plan that will restore the company to financial solvency. With New York facing an estimated $9 billion budget deficit next year, it's likely that the legislature will agree to most of OTB's demands.

NY State BROKE
NY City BROKE
OTB BROKE
NYRA BROKE

Better get the SLOTS churning soon so everyone is BROKE together..

How does OTB lose money it's insane?

America BROKE

[pointman]

Maybe the real problems can be addressed such as the end of putting people in positions at OTB based on political connections instead of merit (how can any of us forget the highly qualified Hazel Dukes' tenure?)

Maybe the State can take less or no money and stop using it as a piggy bank and allow OTB and the racetracks to run as a profitable model.

Maybe the State can allow customers to get simulcasts of racetracks across the country at home even when NYRA is racing so OTB can shut down parlors and concentrate more on on-line betting, or better yet, maybe shut down OTB altogether and allow the racetracks to run off-track betting on-line while giving customers access to tracks around the country and take another hand out of the racetracks cut and possibly even reduce takeout to some extent.

Just a few ideas off the cuff that the legislators should consider.