New York OTBs are at a competitive and

bankrupt disadvantage when they are closed like NYC OTB and file for bankruptcy like Suffolk OTB and are closed when out of state tracks are running that bettors want to bet based on a religious preference. Giving an OTB a slot machine is not as good a deed as giving a heroin addict a shot of good clean Fentanyl?

DRF.Com › News › Industry News › New York to add 5-cent fee to bets made with out-of-state companies 08/23/2013 4:49PM New York to add 5-cent fee to bets made with out-of-state companies By Matt Hegarty Comments 3 Email Print SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A law set to go into effect Jan. 1 in New York will require out-of-state account-wagering operators to pay a 5-cent fee for every dollar wagered through their operations by a New York resident, with the brunt of those fees going to their New York competitors. The law, which was contained in a bill passed earlier this year dealing with casinos in the state, will explicitly allow out-of-state account-wagering operators to take bets from New York residents for the first time. State law had previously been unclear on whether out-of-state operators could legally take bets from New York customers. Still, most large account-wagering providers began taking bets from New Yorkers within the past five years, if not earlier. The law calls the 5 percent fee a “market-origin fee,” and it will be applied to any wager made by a New York customer, regardless of whether the customer is betting on a race at a New York track or an out-of-state track. Account-wagering companies typically retain 10 to 20 cents per dollar wagered. The most prominent account-wagering operators that will be affected by the fees are twinspires.com, TVG, and XpressBet, the three largest such operations in the United States. The money raised by the fee will be required to be deposited in an account maintained by the state, with distributions determined by a set of statutory formulas. Courtney Norris, a spokeswoman for Churchill Downs Inc., which owns twinspires.com, said the company would not comment on the legislation or the fees. Officials for TVG and XpressBet did not return phone calls Friday. Lee Park, a spokesman for the New York State Gaming Commission, which regulates racing in the state, said that the commission provided “technical assistance” on the bill because of a report it prepared in 2012 analyzing account wagering in New York. Park said the language in the bill was agreed to “by all OTBs, harness tracks, and Thoroughbred tracks.” Under the law, 40 percent of the money provided by the fee will be distributed to the state’s five offtrack betting companies. Another 50 percent will go to the state’s racetracks, including the New York Racing Association, Finger Lakes, and the seven harness tracks operating in New York. The state will retain the remainder. NYRA and Finger Lakes will receive 60 percent of the share that goes to racetracks, with the state’s harness tracks receiving 40 percent. It is unclear how that ratio was determined. According to the New York gaming commission report, account-wagering handle in 2011 on New York Thoroughbred races was $193 million, compared to $18 million on harness races, a more than 10-to-1 difference. NYRA will retain “5/6ths” of the amount going to NYRA and Finger Lakes, according to the law. Forty percent of NYRA’s share will go toward purses, 20 percent will go toward breeders’ awards, and the remainder will be retained by NYRA. All told then, NYRA – which operates the three largest Thoroughbred tracks in New York – will receive 10 percent of the money distributed from the fund. NYRA officials declined to comment on the legislation this week. NYRA and the state’s five offtrack betting companies all operate their own account-wagering operations. The levy of the 5 percent fee will likely put the out-of-state operators at a competitive disadvantage compared to their in-state competitors by squeezing their profit margins on New York bets.

HI- Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address. Claude Solnik (631) 913-4244 Long Island Business News 2150 Smithtown Ave. Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348  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.

Kevin McCaffrey, Barry Yomtov and Teamsters Local 707
a plan for ......?

Suffolk LD 14 think before you vote