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Albany
Gamblers who need more stimulation than an egg hunt on Easter Sunday can celebrate at the Rivers Casino in Schenectady, or either of the two other newly opened upstate gaming halls. All of them are offering special Easter buffets.
Or they can visit the state's long-standing video lottery terminal "racinos," including the Saratoga Casino in Saratoga Springs and the massive Resorts World racino connected to the Aqueduct race track in Queens.
But if you want to see a live thoroughbred race at Aqueduct or elsewhere in the state, you'll be out of luck: Parimutuel betting on horse races is not allowed on Easter Sunday in New York.
Also closed are the state's off-track betting parlors, including Capital OTB in Albany, and the phone betting services known as Advanced Deposit Wagering.
Meanwhile, tracks such as Santa Anita in California, Gulfstream in Florida, Laurel Park in Maryland and Woodbine in Ontario expect to be racing on Sunday.
The seeming contradiction in New York's holiday gambling offerings is an oddity of the state's complex gaming regulations.
"I can buy a lottery ticket and play VLT slots" on Sunday, said Jackson Leeds, a lawyer and part-time cashier for the Nassau County OTB.
Noting that his employer as well as OTBs in Suffolk County and in Albany are struggling financially, Leeds believes they should be open on Easter Sunday. "Racing is national," he said.
The disparity is due largely to timing, noted Mark Berner, who follows the sport for the Horseraceinsider.com website.
"It's a matter of timing," said Berner. "When the laws were made there were no casinos."
He noted that the morality statutes known as Blue Laws that prohibit betting, horse racing and buying alcohol have faded away over the years.
Not until 2016, for instance, did New York allow the serving of alcoholic beverages before 10 a.m. on Sundays. The so-called "Brunch Bill" was passed into law near the end of last year's legislative session.
However, there doesn't appear to be much political support for operating racetracks on Easter, at least according to the state Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.
"New York has a long-standing of practice of being closed on Easter. It is not too big of an ask to give up a day of racing to continue this tradition," said Rick Violette Jr., president of the association, in a statement.
Tracks and OTBs are also closed on Christmas Day.
As well as the tradition, others have said that staffing issues can come into play — it may be difficult to get workers at the tracks on Easter and Christmas.
There have been changes however.
In 2015, New York lifted a ban on horse racing on Palm Sunday, after Democratic Assemblyman Gary Pretlow and Republican Senator Michael Ranzenhofer sponsored legislation.
The move was intended to give the public "more recreational opportunities to enjoy the excitement and relaxation of horse racing," according to the bill's justification memo.
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