Dear Claude,

Thank you very much for the suggestion about OTB remaining open on Sundays. Although I am skeptical about over-reliance on gambling for public revenues, and about how OTB operates in Nassau County, if it's going to be here it might as well be run well. I have no problem at all with OTB remaining open on Sundays. Closing horse race betting on Sundays is an anachronism that hails back to another age. For a long time, decades, the playing of baseball games was banned on Sunday. I remember when New York still had blue laws and you couldn't go to a shopping center on Sundays. 

Thanks for sending this interesting information along. 

Best wishes,

Michael Miller

New Hyde Park

On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 4:17 PM, leonard <pointreyes@verizon.net> wrote:

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.