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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.
Malcolm Smith found guilty of all 4 charges
New York State Sen. Malcolm Smith
leaves federal court in White Plains, N.Y. Photo
Credit: AP / Seth Wenig
A White Plains federal court jury found Smith, a Democrat who represented Jamaica, Queens, guilty of all four charges: bribery conspiracy, wire fraud, use of interstate facilities to commit bribery and extortion.
A co-defendant, former Queens Republican Party vice chairman Vincent Tabone was also convicted of four charges: bribery conspiracy, wire fraud, use of interstate facilities to commit bribery and witness tampering.
PhotosDisgraced NY politicians An earlier trial of both Smith and Tabone ended in a mistrial last year after prosecutors conceded that the case would be delayed for weeks in order to translate certain audiotapes, some in Yiddish, made by a cooperating witness.
Smith's main defense was that he had been entrapped by the government, never paid a bribe and was lied to by informants. Tabone's was that he thought the $25,000 he was to receive was legitimate pay for consulting work.
Smith was indicted in 2013 for what was a scheme to have him win the backing of three city Republican organizations so he could run on the GOP line instead of having to go through a Democratic primary battle. Prosecutors charged that Smith authorized bribes totaling about $200,000.
Smith, who for a short time in 2009 served as majority leader of the State Senate, and Tabone face potential maximum penalties of up to 50 years in prison when they are sentenced July 1. Under sentencing guidelines, however, they will probably get much less.
Thursday's verdict also makes Smith one of the highest-ranking state political officials to be convicted in a series of political corruption cases brought by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. He has led a government offensive against what has been labeled a "show me the money" culture in Albany.
Smith is free on bond. His defense attorney Gerald Shargel said the job of defending his client was made more difficult by recent headlines, which included the indictment of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).
"This is very difficult time to be a political figure," Shargel told Newsday. "All of this publicity, arresting Silver in middle of my trial." Shargel said he plans to file an appeal.
Tabone's attorney couldn't be reached for comment.
In a prepared statement, Bharara said that Smith and Tabone weren't the only ones involved in the scheme, noting that former Republican City Council member Dan Halloran also was bribed. Halloran was convicted after trial last year.
"Sadly, this was just one of the many pockets of corruption this office has uncovered in New York, which has become the 'show me the money' state," Bharara said. He has acknowledged that his office has a number of corruption probes underway. "It should not be asking too much to expect public officials at least to obey the law."
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