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Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012

Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.

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Dear Fellow New Yorker, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently announced that Long Island was awarded $60 million in round two of the State’s Regional Economic Development Councils competition. As the centerpiece of the Governor's strategy to jumpstart the economy and create jobs, the Regional Councils were put in place in 2011 to redesign the state's approach to economic development from a top-down model to a community-based, performance-driven approach. The initiative empowers community, business, and academic leaders, as well as members of the public in each region of the state, to develop strategic plans specifically tailored to their region's unique strengths and resources in order to create jobs and support economic growth. This year as part of the second round of the funding process, Governor Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy traveled to all ten regions of the state to view progress on projects that have received state funding, as well as assess projects included in the region's 2012 application. Long Island was awarded $59.7 million for 86 projects in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Some of the winning projects include: $2.15 million to expand the Brookhaven Rail Terminal in Yaphank to include construction of a 500,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse and a multi-modal rail freight facility to transport products on and off Long Island $1 million to support the construction of an $80 million, 94,000 square foot Research Institute at Winthrop University Hospital in the Village of Mineola. The Institute will be a medical research and education facility that will focus on diabetes and obesity. $1 million to support the construction of a sewage collection system for the Ronkonkoma Hub transit-oriented development. The system will connect the proposed mixed-use redevelopment project to a new sewage treatment plant being constructed by Suffolk County with Round One Regional Council funding. A second component in the Town of Islip involves the construction of a four lane access road of approximately 9,000 linear feet to a 60-acre undeveloped parcel at MacArthur Airport. This project is critical to the retention of the FAA Tracon Facility on Long Island and 800 jobs. $1 million to construct a new Long Island Railroad station and pedestrian overpass, providing access to new commuter parking areas in Wyandanch $500,000 for Nassau County to redevelop the 77-acre Nassau Hub area to include a new state-of-the-art indoor sports arena, minor league baseball park, retail, office and residential development $500,000 to support a 30,000 square foot expansion of the Broad Hollow Bioscience Park on 38.5 acres at Farmingdale State College. The project will help meet a critical need for incubator space to accommodate spin-offs from Long Island research facilities and retain and create life sciences jobs. $227,583 and $120,000 for infrastructure upgrades to improve the competitiveness and profitability of two commercial fish processing, packing and distribution facilities in Montauk, the largest fishing port in New York State To learn more about Governor Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Councils that are creating jobs throughout our state, click here. Together we are building a new New York. Sincerely, The Office of the Governor


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