he hates Greeks and people of other religious or no religious persuasion, that he doesn't pay bettors exactly what they win, and that he dislikes bettors and OTB. Vote no Cuomo!!!
Andrew, another lawyer who fails to take cognizance of NY Const. Art 1, Sec. 3
About 30 years ago, a particularly loony New York State
assemblyman introduced a bill that would have required a minimum payoff
of $4 on every $2 bet at New York racetracks.
The idea, which would have bankrupted racing, was roundly and rightly ridiculed, the bill expired without action, and in almost every jurisdiction, the minimum payoff remains $2.10 for $2.
The nutty proposal did raise a legitimate pari-mutuel issue that has remained largely unaddressed to this day: Why should there be any guaranteed, artificial minimum payoff in the pari-mutuel system, and why are payoffs still rounded down in 10-cent or 20-cent increments instead of being paid off accurately to the penny?
Stock markets made the change to decimal pricing years ago, and racing can no longer hide behind the outdated excuse that these payoffs would slow mutuel lines to a crawl as tellers counted out pennies. An increasing number of bets today are made through advance-deposit wagering accounts or through vouchers at self-service machines.
Breakage, the practice of rounding down (always down) payoffs to supposedly more-convenient dime increments, is, in fact, nothing but institutionalized theft from customers, with their rightful earnings directed to a slush fund usually split between the state and the track.
Defenders of the practice, a group limited to beneficiaries of these slush funds, claim it is a matter so trifling that bettors don’t know or care about it, but breakage adds up and can, in fact, be more onerous than the highest of current takeout rates.
A horse who should pay $2.39 for $2 instead has that payout rounded down to $2.20, a breakage tax of almost 50 percent on top of the 15 percent to 20 percent house takeout that has already been applied.
Such a horse will pay $2.30 rather than $2.20 in New York, where a saner breakage scheme instituted in 1994 rounds to the nearest dime rather than 20-cent increment on payoffs under $10. (The trade-off is that Empire State payoffs break to 50 cents on $2 payoffs over $50 and to $1 on payoffs over $500, which minimizes breakage’s effect by flattening the percentage impact.)
This is an improvement, but even $2.30 instead of $2.20 on what should be a $2.39 payoff is still an unwarranted 24 percent profits surtax on the proper payoff.
Paying off the correct $2.39 quickly becomes significant: It’s a return of $23.90 instead of $22 on a $20 bet, or $239 instead of $220 on a $200 bet, and that is a whopping difference on a percentage basis, one that could even stimulate renewed interest in racing’s declining win, place, and show pools.
It amounts to a much more attractive investment opportunity and a takeout reduction that will ultimately benefit the track by putting more money back into circulation, where it will be churned repeatedly.
Going to penny payoffs would mean the end of the “bridge-jumping” era, as a minimum payoff of $2.01 instead of $2.10 would make show bets on supposedly sure things unattractive. You would have to be right 200 times out of 201, instead of the current 20 times out of 21, just to break even.
It’s an era worth ending. There is absolutely no logic to having an artificial, guaranteed minimum, which, in fact, violates the whole point of the pari-mutuel system and the neutrality of the stakeholder.
Some players may lament the absence of the occasional opportunity to play against a bridge-jumped horse, but they will do far better in the long run by getting the payoffs they deserve on every race.
The first state that switches to penny breakage will reap a huge bounty of goodwill and loyalty from its customers. Imagine betting a race tomorrow and getting across-the-board payoffs of $9.78, $4.31, and $2.79 instead of $9.60, $4.20, and $2.60.
In addition to immediately returning more money to bettors to be reinvested multiple times, it would become a widely reported news item across the general as well as racing and financial media, make the industry look like it cares about fairness to its overtaxed customers, and just might get some people thinking about whether there’s money to be made betting on horses.
Just because it makes too much sense doesn’t mean it’s not worth a try.
Stop scratching on holidays
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.
The idea, which would have bankrupted racing, was roundly and rightly ridiculed, the bill expired without action, and in almost every jurisdiction, the minimum payoff remains $2.10 for $2.
The nutty proposal did raise a legitimate pari-mutuel issue that has remained largely unaddressed to this day: Why should there be any guaranteed, artificial minimum payoff in the pari-mutuel system, and why are payoffs still rounded down in 10-cent or 20-cent increments instead of being paid off accurately to the penny?
Stock markets made the change to decimal pricing years ago, and racing can no longer hide behind the outdated excuse that these payoffs would slow mutuel lines to a crawl as tellers counted out pennies. An increasing number of bets today are made through advance-deposit wagering accounts or through vouchers at self-service machines.
Breakage, the practice of rounding down (always down) payoffs to supposedly more-convenient dime increments, is, in fact, nothing but institutionalized theft from customers, with their rightful earnings directed to a slush fund usually split between the state and the track.
Defenders of the practice, a group limited to beneficiaries of these slush funds, claim it is a matter so trifling that bettors don’t know or care about it, but breakage adds up and can, in fact, be more onerous than the highest of current takeout rates.
A horse who should pay $2.39 for $2 instead has that payout rounded down to $2.20, a breakage tax of almost 50 percent on top of the 15 percent to 20 percent house takeout that has already been applied.
Such a horse will pay $2.30 rather than $2.20 in New York, where a saner breakage scheme instituted in 1994 rounds to the nearest dime rather than 20-cent increment on payoffs under $10. (The trade-off is that Empire State payoffs break to 50 cents on $2 payoffs over $50 and to $1 on payoffs over $500, which minimizes breakage’s effect by flattening the percentage impact.)
This is an improvement, but even $2.30 instead of $2.20 on what should be a $2.39 payoff is still an unwarranted 24 percent profits surtax on the proper payoff.
Paying off the correct $2.39 quickly becomes significant: It’s a return of $23.90 instead of $22 on a $20 bet, or $239 instead of $220 on a $200 bet, and that is a whopping difference on a percentage basis, one that could even stimulate renewed interest in racing’s declining win, place, and show pools.
It amounts to a much more attractive investment opportunity and a takeout reduction that will ultimately benefit the track by putting more money back into circulation, where it will be churned repeatedly.
Going to penny payoffs would mean the end of the “bridge-jumping” era, as a minimum payoff of $2.01 instead of $2.10 would make show bets on supposedly sure things unattractive. You would have to be right 200 times out of 201, instead of the current 20 times out of 21, just to break even.
It’s an era worth ending. There is absolutely no logic to having an artificial, guaranteed minimum, which, in fact, violates the whole point of the pari-mutuel system and the neutrality of the stakeholder.
Some players may lament the absence of the occasional opportunity to play against a bridge-jumped horse, but they will do far better in the long run by getting the payoffs they deserve on every race.
The first state that switches to penny breakage will reap a huge bounty of goodwill and loyalty from its customers. Imagine betting a race tomorrow and getting across-the-board payoffs of $9.78, $4.31, and $2.79 instead of $9.60, $4.20, and $2.60.
In addition to immediately returning more money to bettors to be reinvested multiple times, it would become a widely reported news item across the general as well as racing and financial media, make the industry look like it cares about fairness to its overtaxed customers, and just might get some people thinking about whether there’s money to be made betting on horses.
Just because it makes too much sense doesn’t mean it’s not worth a try.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long
Island
Business News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
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.
Dear Fellow New Yorker,
Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the proposed 2014-15 Executive Budget. The budget continues the fiscally disciplined approach that has defined the Governor’s first three budgets and builds upon the State’s record of success during his term.
Over the last three years, Governor Cuomo has turned a $10 billion deficit to a $2.2 billion surplus by employing fiscally responsible policies and curbing the out-of-control spending that had defined Albany for decades. The surplus will allow the State to fund more than $2 billion in critical tax cuts for families and job-creating businesses, as well as allow the State to fund important investments in education, job creation, housing, preserving the environment, and building a stronger and more resilient state.
This year’s budget is far more than a budget: it is an innovative action plan with more policies and program development than ever before. The budget again limits State funding growth to 2 percent or less and builds on the progress of the last three years by restoring the public’s trust and making New York a state that is smarter, cleaner, healthier and reimagined for the future.
Some highlights of the budget include:
The new New York works for the people.
Sincerely,
Office of the Governor
Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the proposed 2014-15 Executive Budget. The budget continues the fiscally disciplined approach that has defined the Governor’s first three budgets and builds upon the State’s record of success during his term.
Over the last three years, Governor Cuomo has turned a $10 billion deficit to a $2.2 billion surplus by employing fiscally responsible policies and curbing the out-of-control spending that had defined Albany for decades. The surplus will allow the State to fund more than $2 billion in critical tax cuts for families and job-creating businesses, as well as allow the State to fund important investments in education, job creation, housing, preserving the environment, and building a stronger and more resilient state.
This year’s budget is far more than a budget: it is an innovative action plan with more policies and program development than ever before. The budget again limits State funding growth to 2 percent or less and builds on the progress of the last three years by restoring the public’s trust and making New York a state that is smarter, cleaner, healthier and reimagined for the future.
Some highlights of the budget include:
- Holds State spending growth to 2 percent for the fourth consecutive year;
- Cuts taxes by more than $2 billion by 2016-17, using surpluses to be generated by the Governor’s commitment to responsible fiscal management;
- Increases education aid by almost 4%;
- Funds a statewide universal pre-K program by providing $1.5 billion over a five-year period;
- Expands after school programs by authorizing $720 million over a five-year period;
- Ensures that all of our children have access to the latest technology needed to compete on the global stage by proposing a $2 billion Smart Schools Bond Act;
- Grows our state’s economy and creates jobs by providing an additional round of funding for the Regional Economic Development Councils and linking them with the START-UP NY program to attract businesses from around the world, delivers on the promise of the “Buffalo Billion,” and makes strategic capital investments in Upstate projects;
- Helps hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities restructure to provide quality community-based care by advancing $1.2 billion in capital funding;
- Protects our state’s greatest resource – our environment – by increasing the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), expanding outdoor recreational opportunities and access to NY-grown agricultural products, and providing a new round of NY Works capital funding for environmental facilities;
- Strengthens our public higher education system to excel both academically and as an economic engine by providing $110 million for a new and expanded round of SUNY2020 and CUNY2020 programs and $8 million in funding for a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) scholarship program;
- Connects the successful NY Youth Works to our community colleges and expands the tax credit program from $6 million to $10 million annually to help encourage more employers to hire inner city youth; and
- Provides new economic opportunities and improves services for veterans.
The new New York works for the people.
Sincerely,
Office of the Governor
No comments:
Post a Comment