Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
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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.
The Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation board will rescind five-year contracts for the agency’s president and vice president after the state Gaming Commission said long-term employment contracts were invalid, the board’s counsel said Thursday.
The Gaming Commission in December cited case law and a state Attorney General opinion that the two top OTB positions must “serve at the pleasure of the Board,” and that the contracts violated that standard.
OTB board counsel Kevin Snover said the board met in executive session Thursday and decided to rescind the five-year offers, although the board “expressed confidence” in president Phil Nolan and vice president Anthony Pancella III. They will continue to serve at the board’s pleasure.
In January 2015, the board awarded contracts to Nolan and Pancella guaranteeing their positions through 2020, as the bankrupt horse race wagering agency waged a fight to open Suffolk’s first casino with up to 1,000 video lottery terminals.
The board discovered it had no record of a vote after a Newsday open records request. It held a public vote to approve the contracts in September.
Nolan made $152,000 in 2014, while Pancella made $142,000, according to the latest payroll information available.
“These two guys are the best we ever had,” Dominick Feeney, chairman of the three-member board, said in September.
While the OTB president and vice president technically serve at the pleasure of the three member board, which is appointed by the Suffolk Legislature, they are picked by political party leaders.
Asked about the contract issue, Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer called the issue “academic at this point.”
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Republican Chairman John Jay LaValle did not return a call for comment.
Officials have said they hope to open the video lottery casino in the former Islandia Marriott in February, with 260 machines. Nearby residents have sued to block the casino.
In an effort to stay afloat, Suffolk OTB has sold its headquarters building, closed branches, reduced the number of employees and taken out loans from its casino management company, Delaware North.
Suffolk OTB has lost money every year since 2006 as interest in horse racing declined.
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