NYC-OTB: Understanding the phony 'crisis'

[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.

[Kasept]

Do not be taken in by Sandy Frucher's ploy in this. As with their bogus claims last year, NYC OTB is NOT bankrupt or in any short term danger of collapse. They are using a phony accounting charge off which Matt Hegarty identified a year ago, to make it look like they are in far worse shape than they are.

This is a political dodge Frucher is utilizing to try to re-position NYC OTB's obligations to Albany and NYRA in advance of the VLT parlor at Aqueduct.

The key elements from Hegarty's piece:

Frucher said that he expected to ask the legislature to scuttle provisions that require OTB to pay distributions to the racing industry and state and local governments off its gross revenue.

Frucher also indicated that the company would seek to change its relationships with state racetracks by negotiating with the tracks for the rights to their signals, instead of having statutes determine how much the tracks get paid.

Note that NYC OTB is current with their payments to OUT OF STATE racetracks and have been withholding their payments to NYRA. And they have blatantly been ignoring any directives from the State Racing and Wagering Board on any matter. Frucher is going to try to screw NYRA over the rake and will use his political connections and relationships with editorial boards to garner support.

But do not for a minute believe NYC OTB is bankrupt, because they aren't... other than morally at least.

[gales0678]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Do not be taken in by Sandy Frucher's ploy in this. As with their bogus claims last year, NYC OTB is NOT bankrupt or in any short term danger of collapse. They are using a phony accounting charge off which Matt Hegarty identified a year ago, to make it look like they are in far worse shape than they are.

This is a political dodge Frucher is utilizing to try to re-position NYC OTB's obligations to Albany and NYRA in advance of the VLT parlor at Aqueduct.

The key elements from Hegarty's piece:

Frucher said that he expected to ask the legislature to scuttle provisions that require OTB to pay distributions to the racing industry and state and local governments off its gross revenue.

Frucher also indicated that the company would seek to change its relationships with state racetracks by negotiating with the tracks for the rights to their signals, instead of having statutes determine how much the tracks get paid.

Note that NYC OTB is current with their payments to OUT OF STATE racetracks and have been withholding their payments to NYRA. And they have blatantly been ignoring any directives from the State Racing and Wagering Board on any matter. Frucher is going to try to screw NYRA over the rake and will use his political connections and relationships with editorial boards to garner support.

But do not for a minute believe NYC OTB is bankrupt, because they aren't... other than morally at least.

someone will go to jail for cooking the books steve?? who goes how much time?