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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.
Letter: Why close racetrack on Palm Sunday?
Photo credit: AP | In this photo provided by New York Racing Association,
Stay Thirsty, left, with Ramon Dominguez aboard, captures The G1 Cigar
Mile horse race at Aqueduct in New York. (Nov. 24, 2012)
To see what's wrong up in Albany,
one only needs to look at the fact that the Aqueduct Racetrack was
closed on Palm Sunday. On an average Sunday, The Big A has a total
handle of between $6 million and $7 million, of which New York State takes a percentage.Racing also injects money into the industry, paying jockeys, trainers, grooms, etc. Hundreds of employees -- pari-mutuel clerks and racing officials -- help put on the show, which the state gets a piece of in income taxes.
All of this, worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, was lost because on an antiquated law. Not being allowed to race on Christmas or Easter is OK, but Palm Sunday? The New York Racing Authority races on Thanksgiving, and that's a holiday that the vast majority of us celebrate.
Changing this law would be a slam-dunk revenue creator.
Gerard Bringmann, Patchogue
Editor's note: The writer is both a racing fan and a practicing Catholic.
Nassau OTB must be open without religious preference. The faithful are free to go to Church on any day that they wish. It is simply not the province of the State of New York to determine the precise Sunday upon which Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are observed. It is clear to the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church which Sunday the holiday is to be observed. It is not within the ambit for the State of New York to make religious determinations and express a religious preference. NY PML Sec 109 does not pass either the laugh test, legal scrutiny or constitutional muster.
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