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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.
Cuomo calls Amazon deal a ‘home run’ while defending massive tax breaks
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has defended the massive deal to bring Amazon HQ2 to Long Island City — and dismissed as “nonsensical” complaints from “politicians who pander.”
Cuomo, responding to criticism Thursday over the combined $2.8 billion incentive package provided to Amazon by the city and state, said on WCNY’s “The Capitol Pressroom,” “I would do that [deal] all day long.”
“This is the largest economic infusion the state has ever seen,” Cuomo said of the deal with the e-commerce giant, which is expected to produce at least 25,000 jobs.
“It’s a big, transformative move for our economy in the tech sector. It diversifies our economy and it’s a home run … These are great jobs.”
Cuomo said there are legitimate complaints, including those concerning housing, that must be addressed.
“Are there people in the surrounding community who are anxious? Of course … We’re talking to people in the community who have legitimate questions,” he said.
He said the influx of Amazon employees who will reside in Long Island City or nearby “will take housing off the market and create a housing issue. That is a legitimate concern. That creates a housing need.”
But the governor repeatedly defended the controversial taxpayer subsidies included in the Amazon plan. He said for every $1 billion in revenues New York gets from Amazon, the government is only giving the firm back $100 million — for a net plus of $900 million.
He said whenever there is change, there will be “nervous neighbors, bankers that bicker and politicians who pander.”
Cuomo said New Jersey, Maryland and Louisiana offered fatter tax breaks to Amazon than New York did.
He argued that New York, with higher tax rates than other states, had to sweeten the pot for Amazon.
“Obviously we had to win the compensation or we come up with zero. If they don’t come, we have nothing,” he said.
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