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Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
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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.
Hempstead GOP haunts
The Republican-controlled Hempstead Town Board is stepping up its efforts to strip authority from Supervisor Laura Gillen; the official release of the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting will be filled chapter and verse with the antics.
However, while there is a Democrat in the supervisor’s seat for the first time in a century, there is one item on the agenda that serves to remind everyone that Hempstead Republicans will never fade away. A proposed resolution seeks to name the football field, basketball court, T-ball field and all other areas adjoining MacLaren Stadium for former GOP county leader Joseph Mondello, who also served as the town’s supervisor. If approved by the board, the site would be known as the The Ambassador Joseph N. Mondello Athletic Complex. It’s unclear whether the MacLaren name would disappear totally or be relegated to the name of a specific site within the Mondello complex.
While information is sketchy on Ernest Hamilton MacLaren, his story appears to mirror the classic tale of the post-World War II development of Levittown. Born in New York City in 1911 and married there in 1940 to Elvira Izzarone (later known as Vera MacLaren), he was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in the Navy in WWII, when he served as a pharmacist. MacLaren died in 1960, and 1963 is the first year a Newsday story mentions a sports event at a MacLaren field. In 1967, Newsday ran a photo of the dedication of a momument to MacLaren and his wife by the Levittown Lions Club. Its says MacLaren was a former president of the club and a Boy Scout leader.
The reason cited in the proposed town board resolution to overshadow MacLaren: Mondello’s appointment as U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. A fitting tribute to the party machine leader for achieving the highest form of patronage in America.
Rita Ciolli
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