Dear Governor Andrew Cuomo,  Speaker of the Assemby and Senate Majority Leader:

Today, June 15th, Nassau OTB reopened three branches and some OTB employees returned to work.   Please help Nassau OTB bettors and employees, by immediately altering the statutes that the OTB's challenged and lost. (see below). OTB's should be able to take flat tracks at night. Bettors want to bet them and Nassau OTB employees do not want Nassau OTB to curtail branch hours.


Sincerely  yours,


Jackson Leeds
Nassau OTB Cahier


cc: Nassau OTB employees

Court of Appeals of New York.

IN RE: SUFFOLK REGIONAL OFF-TRACK BETTING CORPORATION, Appellant-Respondent, v. NEW YORK STATE RACING AND WAGERING BOARD et al., Respondents-Appellants. (And Four Other Related Proceedings.).

Decided: December 17, 2008

Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, Albany (Victor Paladino, Barbara D. Underwood and Andrea Oser of counsel), for New York State Racing and Wagering Board, respondent-appellant. Bleakley Platt & Schmidt, LLP, White Plains (Frederick J. Martin, Susan E. Galvo and Robert D. Meade of counsel), for Yonkers Racing Corporation, respondent-appellant. Nolan & Heller, LLP, Albany (Richard L. Burstein of counsel), for Saratoga Harness Racing, Inc., respondent-appellant. Marvin Newberg, Monticello, for Monticello Raceway Management, Inc., respondent-appellant. Jaspan Schlesinger Hoffman, LLP, Garden City (Thomas J. Garry and Keith M. Corbett of counsel), for Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation, appellant-respondent. Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York City (Susan Choi-Hausman, Pamela Seider Dolgow, Ira H. Block and June R. Buch of counsel), for New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation, appellant-respondent. Powers & Santola, LLP, Albany (Michael J. Hutter of counsel), Neil H. Tiger, Hauppauge, and Stern & Rindner, Goshen (Mark D. Stern of counsel), for Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation and others, appellants-respondents.

 OPINION OF THE COURT

At the core of this litigation-with the Off-Track Betting Corporations (OTBs) on one side, and the State Racing and Wagering Board and state harness racing tracks on the other side-are questions of statutory interpretation.   We begin with a brief history of the relevant sections of the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law and the present controversy.