snother nassau county bigot
Claude Solnik
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.
Democratic Nassau County executive candidate Laura Curran speaks to supporters in Freeport after her primary victory on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (Credit: Newsday / John Asbury)
Nassau County Legis. Laura Curran will be the Democratic nominee for county executive, riding support from party leaders to defeat County Comptroller George Maragos in Tuesday’s primary.
Curran, a Baldwin resident who has been on the legislature since 2014, declared victory just after 10 p.m. before a crowd of supporters at Nawlins Seafood Co. in Freeport.
County elections board results, as of 11:30 p.m., showed her leading Maragos by roughly 54 percentage points with 56 percent of districts reporting.
In her victory speech, Curran immediately pivoted to the general election, where she’ll face the Republican nominee, former State Sen. Jack Martins of Old Westbury.
“We cannot ignore the challenge that awaits us. We are facing a political machine that has proven it knows how to win,” Curran, 49, said of the Nassau GOP. “We know all too well what those victories have meant: corruption scandal after corruption scandal.”
In his own speech to supporters Tuesday night, Martins said he wanted to focus on addressing how to fix county finances and attracting new business over railing against current leadership.
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Two-term Republican County Executive Edward Mangano isn’t seeking re-election as he fights federal corruption charges.
“My opponents want to make this election about the past. We want to make it about the future,” Martins said from his campaign headquarters in Franklin Square.
Maragos, who was elected comptroller in 2009 — and left the Republican Party last year — conceded defeat after 11:30 p.m. In an interview, he said the lack of party support made his campaign difficult. “You can never underestimate the power of having the establishment behind you,” he said.
Maragos said he would support Curran in the general election.
Though he has held countywide office since 2010, Maragos had run an “outsider” campaign after Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs in January endorsed Curran over him.
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