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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.


equally eg without religious preference, is not a central pillar of democracy, in New York State.
Equality of calendars without preference cries out for a crusader to take a case to the holy temple in Brooklyn to teach the Roman that he must bow down before Athens.

Judge Weinstein might send Andrew Cuomo an "Easter" card by the printers of NY Const Art 1, Sec. 3?

Dan Janison Long Island•Columnists
Gov. Andrew Cuomo in no rush to call special elections

DAN JANISON  dan.janison@newsday.com
3 + -
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany on Jan. 21, 2015.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has never rushed to call special elections to fill vacant legislative posts -- quite the opposite. Last year, he allowed a dozen seats in the State Legislature to remain unoccupied until the November general election, so that some went without incumbents for an entire year.

On Tuesday, a federal judge powerfully prodded Cuomo, for the first time in his tenure, on such a vacancy. If by today the governor hasn't set a date for an election to fill Staten Island's open congressional seat vacated by Rep. Michael Grimm, Judge Jack Weinstein ruled, the court would do so.

"The right to representation in government is the central pillar of democracy in this country. Unjustified delay in filling a vacancy cannot be countenanced," Weinstein wrote.



February 18, 2015 / Brooklyn news / Politics / Bay Ridge
Judge to Cuomo: Call a special election for Grimm seat — or I will
By Max Jaeger
The Brooklyn Paper




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Photo by Elizabeth Graham
No representation: From left, plaintiff David Pascarella and attorneys Ron Castorina, Jr. and John Parnese are suing the governor for refusing to immediately call a special election to fill disgraced Rep. Michael Grimm’s congressional seat after the avowed tax cheat stepped down on Jan. 5.
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A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that if Gov. Andrew Cuomo doesn’t set a date for the special election to replace disgraced Bay Ridge Rep. Michael Grimm by high noon on Feb. 20, he will.

Grimm vacated his seat in Congress on Jan. 5 after copping a plea for tax fraud a week prior. It’s the governor’s job to issue a writ of election, requiring the State Board of Elections to break out the ballot boxes to fill the seat 70 to 80 days after the writ is issued.

But Cuomo said on Feb. 2 that he has no immediate plans to hand down the two-paragraph proclamation, so a Staten Island lawyer and eight plaintiffs from Brooklyn and The Rock sued Cuomo on Feb. 13, seeking an injunction ordering the governor to do his duty.

The federal judge who heard the case sided against the governor on Feb. 17.

“Unless the governor announces the date for a special election on or before noon on Friday, February 20, 2015, or justifies further delay at a hearing to be conducted by this court at that time and date, this court will fix the date for a special election as promptly as the law will allow,” Judge Jack Weinstein wrote in his decision.

Weinstein could force the election under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the judge said in his decision.

The ruling sets a precedent, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Ron Castorina.

“This was a huge win,” he said. “This really changes the way any governor in the state of New York can look at the Public Officers’ Law.”

Weinstien surveyed discretion other states allow their governors in calling special elections for federal office and found “in general, the time to call a special election is specified and short.”

Cuomo has not been keen to call special elections in the past. Brooklyn’s 59th Assembly District was vacant for all of 2014, because former assemblyman Alan Maisel stepped down to join the Council on Dec. 31, 2013 and the governor did not call an election to fill the seat.

Castorina, a Republican, accuses the governor of dragging his feet on the election to give the Democratic Party more time to find a candidate who could beat Republican-nominated Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan. A delay could also put Donovan in a bind — if Cuomo holds the vote during the general election in November, Donovan will have to choose between running for Congress or sailing to reelection as district attorney, said Castorina, who has served as a Staten Island GOP Board of Elections Commissioner. Castorina said that his lawsuit is not politically motivated.

The governor’s office said after Weinstein’s decision that it would announce a date for the congressional special election shortly, but did not say when.

“As reflected in the state’s papers filed last week, the governor will announce the date for the special election for New York’s 11th Congressional District shortly, consistent with our constitutional obligation and in a manner that balances both the economic impact of the election as well as the need for fair representation,” spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa told media outlets.

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Issuing the writ would save the governor future embarrassment, Castorina said.

“[Weinstein] has given the governor time to issue the writ without the embarrassment of the court ordering him to do so,” Castorina said. “I hope the governor heeds the court’s guidance in this matter.”
Reach reporter Max Jaeger at mjaeger@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–8303. Follow him on Twitter @JustTheMax.