Louisiana lawyers that Kathy Hochul is handing out cash because she is worse than arrogant
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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.
Lawsuit filed to stop HISA launch on Friday, but judge denies injunction
Matt HegartyJun 30, 2022
A federal judge in Louisiana declined on Thursday to grant a temporary restraining order requested by the state of Louisiana and West Virginia that would have stopped the implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the national regulatory body for Thoroughbred racing whose jurisdiction goes into effect on Friday.
The judge, Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, declined to issue the order by giving the plaintiffs in the lawsuit – HISA and its officers – 14 days to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed late on Wednesday night.
The lawsuit, the latest attempt by opponents of HISA to thwart its implementation, contended that HISA’s rules “will wreak havoc on the racing industry within a matter of days,” and it asked the court to rule that HISA’s regulations should “be preliminarily and permanently enjoined because they suffer from fatal flaws … or contradict constitutional guarantees.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement accompanying the filing that HISA’s regulatory scheme “is half-baked and harmful to everyone in the industry it purports to protect” and criticized the authority for being a creation of the federal government.
“I firmly believe the people of Louisiana should be in control of this activity, not political and corporate elites in some faraway place,” Landry said.
HISA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit asked the court to immediately block the implementation of HISA’s rules and issue a “declaratory judgment and permanent injunction finding the HISA rules invalid and setting them aside,” among other forms of relief.
In addition to the state of Louisiana, the plaintiffs in the suit include the Louisiana State Racing Commission, the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association, the state of West Virginia, the West Virginia Racing Commission, and The Jockeys’ Guild, as well as several racing participants.
The lawsuit makes remarkably similar claims to those that were made in two federal lawsuits contesting the constitutionality of HISA’s enabling legislation, which was passed late in 2020. Both of those lawsuits were dismissed earlier this year by judges in Texas and Kentucky, but the parties in both suits – which included several states and their racing commissions – have appealed the decisions.
On Monday, Senator Joe Kennedy (R-La.) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined two other senators in sending a letter to HISA and its federal overseer, the Federal Trade Commission, asking the organizations to explain several of their decisions in the lead-up to the July 1 implementation date. The letter also asked the authority if it wanted the U.S. Congress to modify deadlines in the enabling legislation.
Doug Daniels, the president of the National HBPA, said in a statement released on Thursday that the parties in the lawsuit were compelled to file the lawsuit after HISA declined requests to delay its implementation.
“Now it has become necessary to request this court decide if HISA is ready for its roll-out,” Daniels said. “The participants are clearly saying the answer is no.”
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