With Democrats Undecided, Fate Of Sports Betting In New York Unclear
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
ny pml sec violates the rights of nyc bettors who travel to bet at nassau otb secured by ny const art 1 sec 3
dinositz et al are thieves. little kids know you cannot pick one easter sunday over the other unless you are andrew cuomo
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.
ALBANY, N.Y. (WCBS 880) -- Sports betting becomes legal this week in New Jersey, but will New York follow?
With just five working days to go in Albany this year, there is no clear consensus. WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman took the pulse of the statehouse Tuesday.
We have heard the argument in favor of sports betting over and over. But some New York state lawmakers have not made up their minds.
“(It) is an unusual feeling for me. I’m usually pretty decided about most things,” said state Assemblyman Dick Gottfried (D-Manhattan). “I personally don’t like gambling. I don’t think it’s healthy to be pursuing your fortune that way rather than doing productive work.”
But Gottfried is not sure if it is the government’s place to shake its finger at people.
Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D-The Bronx) also expressed reservations.
“Well, I don’t want to use the word morality,” he said, “but yeah, I really don’t like putting my stamp of approval on an activity which I believe disproportionately hurts lower-income people.”
Their colleague, Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn) told Politico he is not sure if legalizing sports betting is constitutional. Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) said he will go with the winds of his conference, but it is not clear if he will go with anything before the end of the session.
“I don’t sense that there’s a great demand to do it,” Heastie said. “This is certainly not the number one issue for most people.”
And yet, five days could be an eternity for Albany, and the end of a legislative year in Albany could be unpredictable.
No comments:
Post a Comment