I will be glad to explain why I believe that you should vote NO on the constitutional amendment.
Do not feed the pigs or worse!
Barry Yomtov was the President of Teamsters Local 858 which represented Nassau OTB employees and NYC OTB Managers. NYC OTB went bankrupt. Suffolk OTB has filed for bankruptcy.
Does your kid get a slot machine when he/she can't repay their student loans?
Have you ever heard of a gambling institution that is not open 365 days of the year, when tracks are running all across the United States that bettors want to bet? See eg NY Const. Art 1, Sec. 3
Tell Andrew Cuomo to go to hell! You don't have to be Greek to vote NO.
VOTE NO!
HI-
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> 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.
Quiet Push for Gambling
Cuomo Administration Helping Outside Groups Marshal Support for Amendment
more in New York
»
With about a month until the Nov. 5 election, the governor's top aides, including Director of State Operations Howard Glaser and Executive Deputy Secretary Joe Percoco, have been involved in outside efforts to get the referendum passed, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Glaser in particular has been coordinating with NY Jobs Now, a coalition of business interests, labor-union leaders and elected officials that emerged this week to support the gambling amendment. Many have close ties to the Cuomo administration.
The aides, primarily Mr. Glaser, are "responsible for coordinating the internal and external activities" of NY Jobs Now to advance the measure, one of these people said.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
NY Jobs Now is one of several groups including campaign committees backed by casino operators that intend to spend millions of dollars on advertising, voter-turnout operations and other activities to advance the ballot measure.
A recent Siena College poll found that 55% of registered voters supported the ballot initiative as written, including language about job creation and funding for schools. Asked whether they support or oppose non-Indian, Las Vegas-style casinos in New York, voters were more divided—46% for and 46% against, according to the poll.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, advocated for legislative approval this year of the bill that paved the way for a constitutional amendment, but he hasn't taken a visible role in pushing for the initiative's passage in November. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said "the governor supports the goal of creating jobs, spurring the economy, lowering the property-tax burden and increasing funding for education, and will work with efforts designed to achieve that goal."
A spokesman for NY Jobs Now, Stu Loeser, said the group has a broad coalition of support. "A gaming resort development program to grow jobs upstate was an initiative of Gov. Cuomo's, and we will work with all elected officials who support the measure to educate voters about the referendum," he said.
The coalition hired as its chief strategist Neal Kwatra, a political strategist and former chief of staff to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Mr. Loeser said. It also has retained Jefrey Pollock, president of consulting firm Global Strategy Group, to conduct its polling.
Those efforts promise to be highly visible in coming weeks. "It's a political campaign, almost, where you do your phone bankings, you do your member outreaches, you do your mailings, your leafletting, your whole thing," said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers and a member of NY Jobs Now.
Heather Briccetti, president of the Business Council of New York State and another member of the coalition, said NY Jobs Now would soon begin a direct-mail campaign and would consider TV advertising. She said she was hopeful that the the group's financial resources would be "in the couple million [dollar] range."
Gambling interests are planning campaigns supporting the referendum. Michael Treanor, owner of the Nevele Resort in the Catskills, which he aims to redevelop as a casino if the referendum passes, recently formed a political committee that he said he will fund with at least $1 million. It will begin direct mailings in the next week, he said. Mr. Treanor also spent $30,000 to commission private polling, which showed roughly the same results as the Siena poll.
"The guys that work for the governor are not passive guys. They don't want to see this screwed up," said Mr. Treanor, who said he had talked to the Cuomo administration but not since the legislation was passed.
Opposition has been muted, in part because many traditional foes of casino expansion in New York have been neutralized. Gambling interests in neighboring states are either struggling financially (Atlantic City) or eyeing their own New York operations (Connecticut's Foxwoods Resort Casino). The Catholic Bishops of New York State this week called gambling "a morally neutral act" but also said they were wary of "the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement."Mr. Cuomo struck deals this year with three Indian tribes that operate casinos upstate ensuring that new casinos would be developed far from their reservations.
Mr. Cuomo is hopeful that casino expansion would help jump-start the struggling economies in upstate New York, where legislation authorizes the first four casinos to be developed. Seven total casinos would be authorized by the amendment, with some revenue dedicated to education and property-tax relief.
On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo's budget office released estimates showing that revenue from gaming operations authorized by the legislation would bring in state revenue of $430 million annually, with funds required to be used for additional educational aid and property tax relief.
—Lisa Fleisher
contributed to this article. Write to Erica Orden at erica.orden@wsj.com
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