Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
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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.
A group of people hold up signs during a meeting called "The Resistance Training" hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union, Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Coral Gables, Fla. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Regarding Wendy Kaminer and Alan Dershowitz’s “Where’s the ACLU When You Need It?” (op-ed, May 11): For 97 years the American Civil Liberties Union has unflaggingly defended the free-speech rights of all Americans. Ms. Kaminer and Mr. Dershowitz’s criticism of our recent work as too progressive acknowledges that we have defended Donald Trump’s speech rights and condemned those who silenced conservatives Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos on campus. But the authors fail to mention other speech work that doesn’t suit their narrative, like our briefs in support of the Washington Redskins’ right to a trademark despite the offensive name, the Westboro Baptist Church’s right not to be held liable for homophobic slurs or the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ right not to have a specialty license plate rejected because of its racist views. The ACLU regularly represents Christians, evangelicals and members of other denominations in defense of religious freedom.
The authors fault us for supporting the Affordable Care Act, but we proudly do so because it contains important antidiscrimination provisions that protect women, LGBT individuals and persons with disabilities.
We are equally proud of our work resisting Donald Trump’s assaults on civil liberties, including 15 lawsuits challenging the president’s unconstitutional Muslim travel ban, and 19 Freedom of Information Act requests related to immigration detention practices and fake claims of voter fraud. We have also filed five lawsuits seeking protection of LGBT rights and six suits to defend a woman’s right to reproductive choice—all since the 2016 election.
So to the authors’ question, where is the ACLU when you need it, our answer is: right here, where it’s always been.
David Cole
National Legal Director
American Civil Liberties Union
New York
