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.
Pope Francis Arrives in Sweden to Commemorate Lutheran Reformation
Pontiff highlights plight of refugees in country that, until recently, had one of the most accommodating policies toward displaced persons
Pope Francis is welcomed by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven at Sturup Airport in Malmö, Sweden. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
MALMÖ, Sweden— Pope Francis highlighted two major priorities of his papacy at the start of a two-day visit to Sweden: efforts to heal the 500-year-old rift between Catholics and Protestants and concern for the plight of migrants.
The head of the global Catholic Church joined Lutheran leaders on Monday to celebrate their churches’ efforts to help the poor and marginalized—including migrants—before an audience of thousands. The gathering featured the testimony of refugees and culminated in the pope reiterating his previous calls on governments for open-door policies on migration.
Speaking in his native Spanish, Pope Francis thanked countries that have assisted refugees and other migrants, adding that concern for “outcasts and the marginalized” was a priority for all Christians.
The pope’s words had particular resonance in Sweden, once one of the most accommodating European countries for displaced persons, offering all Syrians fleeing the war extended residency permits if they reached the country. But after a surge in migrant arrivals and rising support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, the country has implemented some of the tightest rules in Europe on who may enter.
Pontus Andersson, a local representative of the party in Malmö, said that the pope’s message would change nothing. “Swedes are becoming more critical of high levels of immigration and we are not a very religious country, so I don’t think people will really care if the pope has a different view,” he said.
Pope Francis spoke after the audience heard from two African refugees and Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, himself a former Palestinian refugee. The Catholic bishop of Aleppo, Syria, spoke about his country’s war, which lies at the heart of Europe’s migrant crisis.
Other speakers addressed efforts to combat climate change in India and bring peace to Colombia after decades of civil strife.
The Malmö event exemplified Pope Francis’ avowed strategy of collaborating on social-service projects with non-Catholic churches as a way of building Christian unity.
Meanwhile, the primary reason for his two-day visit to Sweden is to commemorate the Lutheran Reformation that split Protestants from Catholics in the 16th century and to promote efforts at their reconciliation.
Earlier Monday afternoon, at an ecumenical worship service in the nearby city of Lund, Pope Francis praised the “spiritual experience” of Martin Luther, the German reformer whose teachings led to the split between Catholic and Protestants. The pope called for “moving beyond the controversies and disagreements” separating Protestants and Catholics.
Martin Luther’s denunciations of corruption in the Catholic hierarchy brought him condemnation from Rome, but recent popes have instead reached out to Protestants, and Pope Francis has pursued that path with evident enthusiasm. He recently praised Luther for his efforts to combat abuses in the church.
The pope’s push for closer ties with other Christian churches has stirred concern among some Catholics. For instance, last year, he gave an ambiguous answer to a question from a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic as to whether she could take Communion, suggesting that the woman should follow her conscience.
However, at the cathedral service, Pope Francis and Bishop Younan signed a statement indicating that intercommunion between the churches remained a goal for the future.
The pope’s original plan for the visit to Sweden, where most of the population is Protestant, didn’t include a Catholic Mass.
In an interview with a Swedish Jesuit priest published last week, the pope said he hadn’t wanted a papal Mass to distract from the ecumenical significance of his visit, but finally agreed to the “fervent request” of the country’s small Catholic community. He was scheduled to celebrate Mass at a stadium in Malmö on Tuesday morning before flying back to Rome.
Corrections & Amplifications:
The Greek island is called Lesbos. An earlier version of this article misspelled the Greek island as Lesbo. (Oct. 31, 2016)
The Greek island is called Lesbos. An earlier version of this article misspelled the Greek island as Lesbo. (Oct. 31, 2016)
—Charles Duxbury contributed to this article.
Write to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com
