Schneiderman to sue andrew cuomo administration over easter sunday Internet rule
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
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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.
NY AG says the FCC decision will allow Internet services providers to charge more to access Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
Eric Schneiderman speaks at a press conference in his office on Broadway, Sept. 19, 2017. Photo Credit: Jeff Bachner
ALBANY — State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday that he will sue the Trump administration for what he calls an assault on a free and open Internet that could result in consumers being charged more to use Facebook, Twitter and other popular sites.
On Thursday the Federal Communications Commission voted to end a 2015 rule under the Obama administration, halting strict regulation of the Internet that aimed to make sure large and small websites operated on an equal footing in terms of speed of use and access.
Under President Barack Obama’s rule, broadband internet service companies were required to abide by “net neutrality.” The companies were prohibited from creating a faster service to handle some apps and their own online content at higher cost, leaving slower service for those who can’t afford it.
FCC votes along party lines to end 'net neutrality'
The move represents a radical departure from a decade of federal oversight.
Supporters of the FCC action, however, including communications companies Verizon and AT&T, argue that Internet service providers now are discouraged financially from improving service. An end to net neutrality could allow companies to raise capital to make Internet service faster and more efficient for all under a “light-touch regulatory framework that has fostered rapid Internet growth, openness, and freedom for nearly 20 years,” according to the Federal Communication Commission’s statement regarding the action.
Schneiderman said the FCC decision will allow Internet services providers to charge more to access Facebook, Twitter and other sites and to degrade the quality of video unless consumers pay a higher charge. He said the decision also allows Internet services providers, called ISPs, to favor certain viewpoints in content.
The FCC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Schneiderman’s lawsuit.
“The FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving Internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over consumers,” Schneiderman said Thursday of the legal action he said will be joined by his counterparts in several other states. “Today’s rollback will give ISPs new ways to control what we see, what we do, and what we say online. That’s a threat to the free exchange of ideas that’s made the Internet a valuable asset in our democratic process.”
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