bet you cannot identify the owners of the nassu otb bonds
ny pml sec 109 does not apply to nassau otb, violates the rights of new york bettors secured by ny const art 1 sec 3.... please help ny bettors bet any day of the year that great racing occurs without the state of new york. ny cannot close nassau otb on one easter sunday over the other.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
| Track Code | Track Name | Entry | Scratch | 1st Post ET | 1st Post Local | Time Zone | Stakes Race(s) | Stakes Grade | T.V. Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EQ | EQUIBASE | 48 | 0 | 9:05 PM | 9:05 PM | EDT | |||
| GG | GOLDEN GATE FIELDS | 72 | 0 | 3:15 PM | 12:15 PM | PDT | |||
| GP | GULFSTREAM PARK | 72 | 0 | 12:00 PM | 12:00 PM | EDT | |||
| SA | SANTA ANITA PARK | 72 | 0 | 2:30 PM | 11:30 AM | PDT | |||
| SUN | SUNLAND PARK | 168 | 24 | 2:30 PM |
Nassau OTB misses $3 million payment to county
The payment, which county officials said was due March 31, comes from revenue from video slot machines at Aqueduct Racetrack.
A man uses a video lottery terminal on Saturday at Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack. Photo Credit: Danielle Silverman
Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. missed a deadline to pay $3 million to Nassau County under a revenue-sharing agreement for video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Racetrack, generating concern about whether OTB will be able to make a $20 million payment due next year.
Disclosure of the missed payment comes as Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat who took office Jan. 1, is looking for new revenue and cuts to balance the $3 billion county budget for 2018. NIFA already has identified $104.7 million in uncertain revenue in the budget.
OTB was scheduled to pay $3 million to the county by March 31, the end of the state’s fiscal year, according to Nassau County officials and the state board that controls county finances.
OTB and Nassau County officials say the betting agency will make the $3 million payment soon.
But officials of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county’s financial control board, say the delay in the $3 million payment has increased their concern about whether OTB can make another payment of $20 million due by next March 31.
NIFA chairman Adam Barsky also said the control board has long been concerned that the OTB agreement to make the annual payments to Nassau isn’t “as ironclad as we would like it.”
Nassau OTB gets revenue from more than 500 dedicated VLTs at Aqueduct as a result of language in the 2016 state budget.
Nassau was entitled to $3 million from the Aqueduct VLTs in calendar year 2016, $3 million in the 2017 state fiscal year and $20 million in subsequent fiscal years,
according to letters OTB sent in 2016 to Barsky and then-County Executive Edward Mangano.
according to letters OTB sent in 2016 to Barsky and then-County Executive Edward Mangano.
Nassau OTB officials say they expect to pay the county by May 15 and that they believe such a payment would be “timely.”
Joseph Cairo, OTB president, said in an interview that the March 31 deadline for paying the county wasn’t firm.
Cairo, also first vice chairman of the Nassau Republican Committee, said, “If we said [OTB would make payment] during the fiscal year, we meant that at the end of the fiscal year, we would review our books, do our filings and then after seeing that everything was in order, we would then also remit to the county the money they were due within a reasonable period of time at the conclusion of the fiscal year.”
Conal Denion, special counsel in the Nassau County Attorney’s office, said, “The main thing is we’re expecting it. It is late, but we’re still counting on getting it. We’re still expecting the $20 million to come in future years.”
Curran spokesman Michael Martino said the administration did not contact OTB ahead of the March 31 deadline, but that “it was understood that the situation would be addressed.”
The revenue-sharing agreement between OTB and Nassau grew out of a long-running battle over building a casino with video lottery terminals in Nassau.
Community groups in Westbury fought a proposal to locate the casino at the old Fortunoff site on Old Country Road in Westbury. Nassau OTB was deeply in debt, and agency officials argued they needed new VLT revenue to stay afloat. Nassau OTB also looked to put a VLT gambling parlor at Belmont Park, but local groups opposed it.
In 2016, language in the state budget allowed Nassau OTB to transfer its right to
host up to 1,000 VLTs at a casino to Genting New York LLC, which operates Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct. There are 505 VLT terminals assigned to Nassau OTB at Aqueduct.
host up to 1,000 VLTs at a casino to Genting New York LLC, which operates Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct. There are 505 VLT terminals assigned to Nassau OTB at Aqueduct.
NIFA executive director Evan Cohen said at a recent NIFA meeting that the control board had expected OTB to make the $3 million payment by March 31.
The county hasn’t “received that money, and we’ve always been concerned that the commitment from OTB through the county wasn’t as ironclad as we would like it, and it left a lot of room for OTB to withhold the money,” Barsky said in an interview.
“So, we’ve been highlighting that as an issue,” Barsky said. “And this year, they’re expecting to get $20 million, so it’s a more significant number this year.”
There are exceptions to the March 31 payment deadline, including if Genting is late with payments to OTB or if a “material adverse event” occurs. That would include the opening of a similar “full-service” casino within a 65-mile radius of Aqueduct or if Resorts World’s gambling revenue drops by 10 percent or more.
In the 2017 state fiscal year, more than $6.1 billion was wagered at Nassau OTB’s machines at Aqueduct, according to the state Gaming Commission. Net revenue for Nassau OTB after players’ winnings were paid was $147.75 million. Daily net revenue for OTB averaged $881 per machine, the highest among New York State’s 11 video gambling sites. Net revenue per machine averaged $310 statewide.
Resorts World Casino operated an average 5,100 VLTs at Aqueduct last year.
Suffolk OTB has made the guaranteed payment of $2 million to Suffolk County from first-year VLT operations at Jake’s 58 Hotel & Casino in Islandia, county spokesman Jason Elan said.
Under a plan that emerged from Suffolk OTB’s bankruptcy, Suffolk County is guaranteed a total of $13 million for the casino’s first 10 years of operation, including $2 million the first year and $3 million the second.
The county is to receive $1 million a year from the third through 10th years. Otherwise, profits go to creditors until they’re paid off.
Scott Eidler is an education reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2012. He is a native Long Islander.
Nassau plans for more gambling revenue ride on Albany
State lawmakers must approve the additional 500 machines for Nassau and assure the county gets its much-needed $20 million for 2019.
Video-lottery terminals at Resorts World Casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack on Saturday. Nassau County receives revenue from 500 of the machines. Photo Credit: Danielle Silverman
Nassau County and its off-track betting corporation are bickering about a $3 million payment OTB owes the county, but there’s a much bigger jackpot on the table that the county must collect.
The money comes from a revenue-sharing agreement that designated for Nassau County coffers some of the take from 500 video-lottery terminals at the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The county says the $3 million was due on March 31, while OTB says May 15. However, both sides say the money will be paid soon. The dispute, however, brings forth a more troubling issue: Struggling Nassau County expects $20 million from OTB a year from now, and has included that in the 2019 budget it is drafting. OTB officials say that bigger pot gets paid a year from now only if Resorts World can add another 500 machines to be designated for Nassau. Otherwise, the money Resorts World pays OTB annually won’t increase from the current $9 million to $25 million until 2019. OTB’s payment to Nassau County comes from that pot.
Why would Genting, the operator of Resorts World, go slow? The 500 machines it runs now for Nassau are purposely the most popular and profitable at Aqueduct. That’s because Genting pays only 5 percent of its take on the Nassau machines to the horse racing industry, compared with 16 percent of profits on all of its other machines. But Genting is hesitating because the cut on the next 500 machines isn’t set. That is just one piece of a bevy of gambling laws to be decided in the next session in Albany.
State lawmakers must approve the additional 500 machines for Nassau and assure the county gets its much-needed $20 million for 2019. And while Albany is fixing gambling laws, it must stop throwing charity at the dying racing industry and keeping alive the OTBs, which are more jobs programs and patronage pits than anything else. — The editorial board
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