This blog is not affiliated or endorsed, by Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, subject to the New York Freedom
of Information Law, NY Pub Off Law Sec 84 et seq.
that Cecelia B Ratner does not belong in assisted living. Perhaps Merle Ratner and Susan Ratner do not remember or concur with the observations of those who saw their mother often or who called one of them to describe their observations and concerns.
If Cecelia B Ratner's name is in the Caption as per the Stipulation in the case, then the Hebrew Home has much evidence as to what weight, if any, should be given to the Affidavits of Cecelia B Ratner.
The Hebrew Home and Susan Ratner and Merle Ratner have isolated their mother.
Perhaps Cecelia B Ratner will have to come to Court in The Bronx someday soon?
Stipulations are not listed
Changes in the caption of the case are not listed
Of more interest and curiosity is the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale where resides Cecelia B Ratner in assisted living. Her medical file would reflect on her competency? It is ironic the Workmen's Circle documents find their way, allegedly via Cecelia B Ratner, (and not Merle Ratner and/or Susan Ratner and/or their agents) to Wells Fargo without Hebrew Home for the Aged documents regarding Cecelia Ratner finding their way to Mars. The documents will show and/or tend to show that Cecelia B Ratner's Affidavit should be given little or no wait because her competency is not what it once was?
Hebrew Home for the Aged. Fighting the infidels by proxy.
BCG works well for MS, Type 1 diabetes, plaque psoriasis etc. BCG is not well known to Americans or American healthcare providers, but see eg faustmanlab.org and pubmed.org faustman dl or pubmed.org ristori + BCG.
What can you expect in a land of lawyers and liars?
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)
is known to suppress the asthmatic responses in a murine model of
asthma and to induce dendritic cells (DCs) maturation. Mature DCs play a
crucial role in the differentiation of regulatory T cells (Tregs),
which are known to regulate allergic inflammatory responses. To
investigate whether BCG regulates Tregs in a DCs-mediated manner, we analyzed in a murine model of asthma.
METHODS:
BALB/c mice were injected intraperitoneally with BCG or intravenously with BCG-stimulated
DCs and then sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA). Mice were
analysed for bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR), the influx of
inflammatory cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and
histopathological changes in the lung. To identify the mechanisms, IgE,
IgG1 and IgG2a in the serum were analysed and the CD25+ Tregs in the
mice were depleted with anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody (mAb).
RESULTS:
BCG and the transfer of BCG-stimulated
DCs both suppressed all aspects of the asthmatic responses, namely,
BHR, the production of total IgE and OVA-specific IgE and IgGs, and
pulmonary eosinophilic inflammation. Anti-CD25mAb treatment reversed
these effects.
CONCLUSIONS:
BCG can attenuate the allergic inflammation in a mouse model of asthma by a Tregs-related mechanism that is mediated by DCs.
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.
TUNICA
RESORTS, Miss. — At the height of a recent dinner hour at Mississippi’s
largest casino, fewer than two dozen patrons were seated in the
buffet’s dining room. A nearby jewelry display sat aglow but bare. The
hallways were mostly empty.
This
is what happens when a casino resort approaches an inglorious end. And
on Monday, Harrah’s Tunica will close, which company officials say will
most likely lead to up to 950 job losses. In Tunica County in the
impoverished Mississippi Delta, it is a disquieting reality that
underlines the deeper threat facing Mississippi and other states with
legalized gambling: There may be too many casinos chasing too few
gambling dollars.
“There’s
gambling everywhere,” said Allen Godfrey, the executive director of the
Mississippi Gaming Commission, which reported that the state’s
nontribal casinos posted $2.1 billion in gross gambling revenues last
year. “If you just want to gamble, you don’t have to go very far to do
it.”
It’s
extraordinarily rare for a major casino to just shut down. But along
with a 2011 flood that closed casinos for weeks and a menu of other
attractions that is insufficient to draw more visitors, the spread of
the legalized gambling that revived this region has also contributed to
its recent decline. “No one knew in 1993 or 1994 what it was going to be
like, and then Mississippi showed the world that it could be a viable
industry,” said Anthony F. Lucas, a professor at the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, who researches the gambling industry. “And that
encourages everybody else that has a possible way into the gate that
they can compete.”
Photo
Unionized employees there discussing Harrah’s closing, set for Monday with a loss of up to 950 jobs.Credit
Brandon Dill for The New York Times
Casinos,
including Native American tribal properties, now operate in nearly 40
states, providing tax revenue that states have come to depend on.
“I
think governments are generally receptive because, in a way, it’s
almost like a tax, but they don’t get blamed for it,” Dr. Lucas said.
At the same time, though, parts of the country are coping with a potential glut of casinos.
In
New York, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli cautioned last week that
with casinos confronting new competition, gambling complexes that could
open upstate within a few years may not deliver the economic benefits
some predicted.
Last
month, Missouri’s governor cited a “steep decline” in gambling revenues
when he announced a budget shortfall. And Iowa regulators recently
turned back a plan for a new casino in Cedar Rapids amid worries that it
could destabilize existing properties. Industry experts say Atlantic
City, where casino revenues have fallen partly because of the arrival of
casinos in nearby states, is one of the markets facing an ominous
future. Dr. Lucas said he believed Atlantic City’s “collapse” rivaled
Tunica’s.
For
years, gambling has been a boon for northwest Mississippi. Millions of
people came here to play, transforming this formerly sluggish area into,
for a time, the nation’s third-largest casino market and allowing it to
shove aside decades of squalor. Not even 30 years ago, the notion of a
four-lane highway was whimsical, and an open sewer called Sugar Ditch
flowed through the county seat.
When
casinos began arriving here in 1992, so did an era of low unemployment,
new infrastructure and a sense of economic progress in a place that had
known little of it. This community, long called Robinsonville, even
earned the new, tourist-friendly moniker of Tunica Resorts.
Photo
Sherry Mullins manages a
liquor store near Harrah’s Tunica. “I worry about it,” she said of
closing. “It keeps me awake at night.”Credit
William DeShazer for The New York Times
The
past several years, though, have yielded a pronounced slump. Mr.
Godfrey’s agency said that in April, the 18 casinos in Mississippi River
counties logged less than $80 million in revenue, down from $112.5
million just five years earlier.
To
people here, the reasons for Tunica’s decline are academic. They simply
want to know what will come of a county where — at least for a little
longer — nine casinos sit among cotton fields and offer about 9,600 slot
machines and more than one-third of the state’s blackjack tables.
“It’s
unnerving,” said Sherry Mullins, who worked in the gambling industry
for nearly two decades and now manages a liquor store near the road that
leads to the Harrah’s compound. “I worry about it. It keeps me awake at
night.”
Although
Harrah’s initially said up to 1,300 workers would lose their jobs,
company officials said hundreds had been placed in other positions,
including many at other properties controlled by Caesars Entertainment
Corporation. But for those who will be unemployed on Monday, the end of
Harrah’s has been jarring.
“When
they close the doors on Monday, it’s going to hurt,” said Sabrina
Johnson, who has been earning $13.80 an hour as a cook at the property,
where she has worked for 16 years. “It’s going to sting.” Ms. Johnson,
45, who spoke during a session organized by a labor union that
represents some Harrah’s employees, added, “I know I won’t find a job
that pays me what I am making at Harrah’s, but hopefully I can find
something.”
Others are less optimistic.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” said Jimmy Adams, 66, who has worked at Harrah’s for 18 years. “Nobody’s going to hire me.”
Photo
Novelty pins at a shopping center next to the casino, whose closing will shake the local economy.Credit
William DeShazer for The New York Times
Mr.
Adams and Ms. Johnson said they were among the workers who did not
expect to receive any severance pay after the casino closes.
R.
Scott Barber, Caesars’ regional president for the mid-South, said the
company had tried for four years to sell the Harrah’s property here and
finally decided to shutter a location that he said had become a drain
because of its heavy operating expenses.
That
overhead, along with the regional decline, the flood and the recession,
created what Mr. Barber described as “the perfect storm” and said it
had forced Caesars to act, even though the company had not sold the
property.
“You
typically divest when you have found a suitable buyer,” Mr. Barber
said. The decision stunned this area, which is dotted with billboards
advertising casinos and has a privately owned vocational school for
aspiring dealers and bartenders.
“I’d
love to be able to sit here and spin that this is something good,” said
Webster Franklin, the president and chief executive officer of the
Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau. “But this is not good.” There
is wide agreement that, because casinos elsewhere in Mississippi are not
making up the losses suffered here, the consequences of Tunica County’s
decline will reverberate throughout the state, which received a $140
million increase to its general fund in the 2013 fiscal year from
gambling taxes. In addition, counties and municipalities received more
than $89 million in gambling taxes.
But what is less clear is whether or how Mississippi should try to beef up the industry.
Some
members of the Legislature have wondered aloud in recent months whether
the state should offer economic incentives, like tax breaks, to
existing casinos.
But
Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican who will face re-election in 2015, has
said he would resist any such incentives, in a deeply religious state
where gambling, despite its fiscal value, remains a target for
criticism.
Still,
there has been plentiful speculation that a company could soon buy the
vast Harrah’s property. Although Mr. Barber said a sale was not
imminent, Ms. Mullins is among those hoping for a deal.
“It’s
not just the casino,” she said. “It’s the casino. It’s the R.V. park.
It’s the convention center. It’s so much more that we’re losing. It’s
not just another casino shutting down.”
no one is more religious than Andrew Cuomo who by his divine powers and presidential aspirations and invisible ink NY Const Art 1, Sec 3 decrees that there is no one who shall be President before him because he decides the particular calendar day that the Holy Days occur. Believe in Andrew Cuomo or get the hell out of New York State or at least Nassau OTB when Andrew Cuomo tells you to go to Mississippi!
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
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.
if you have an autoimmune disease, can read, write and think, shoot BCG like they do in Rome
The hell with the quality of care and lack of art dispensed by Mike
see faustmanlab.org , pubmed.org faustman dl, and pubmed.org ristori + bcg
North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling is scripting a new model for health care
Originally published: May 29, 2014 7:47 PM
Updated: May 30, 2014 12:02 PM
By KEN SCHACHTERkenneth.schachter@newsday.com
Michael J. Dowling, president and chief executive
of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, at his office in
Manhasset on May 22, 2014. (Credit: Uli Seit)
Michael Dowling, chief executive of Great
Neck-based North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, oversees one of
the largest health enterprises in the country -- and the largest
private employer in New York State. The system contains 17 hospitals,
the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, the Feinstein Institute
for Medical Research, a fledgling insurance company that features
prominently in Dowling's plans and even a venture capital unit.
If North Shore-LIJ were ranked among
public companies, its 2013 operating revenue of $7 billion would make it
No. 2 on Long Island, behind health care products provider Henry Schein
Inc. Its 48,000 employees -- predominantly on the Island, but also
throughout the metropolitan area -- would overflow Citi Field.
Still, few view the sprawling
not-for-profit corporation through the lens of business; yet it's a
perspective Dowling unapologetically embraces. MARKET LINKS: Live Market Summary | Earnings News | Popular Mutual Funds | Check Bonds | Energy/Metal Futures | Press Releases
Dowling, 64, grew up in a thatched cottage with a dirt
floor in County Limerick, Ireland. At 17, he ventured to the United
States, working on the Manhattan docks. He returned to Ireland to earn a
bachelor's degree from University College Cork before coming back to
New York for a master's degree in social work at Fordham University. In
1983 he joined the administration of New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, serving
as director of Health, Education and Human Services and commissioner of
the Department of Social Services. In 2002 he was named CEO of North
Shore-LIJ.
In a series of conversations, Newsday
asked the Northport resident how he is cobbling together a health care
colossus; how he wants to change the financial model for health care to
encourage wellness and prevention; and what the Long Island economy
could learn from North Shore-LIJ.
Q:You generate billions in revenue,
yet you're structured as a not-for-profit. How do you balance the needs
of serving a community with commercial imperatives?
A: We're a business. I can't do good
things unless the fundamentals are working. I run it as a business and
I'm not ashamed to say it, because that's the only way I can do the
things I want to do and the things that are good for the community. A
lot of what we do loses money. We're one of the largest providers of
mental health services. It loses money because it's [largely funded by
Medicare and] Medicaid. But I have to continue to expand my mental
health services because it's so necessary for the community.
Q:You've grown over the years by acquisitions. Where do you operate now, and are you still growing?
A: Our home is Long Island, but we
cover the five boroughs, and we're in New Jersey [through an alliance
with Hackensack University Health Network]. And we'll expand even
more.We're in negotiations with Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in
Westchester now. There will be more expansion in the city, because the
opportunities in Manhattan are great. We're in discussions in
Connecticut, New Jersey and Orange, Putnam and Rockland counties. If you
look at what's happening in health care around the country, you'll have
no small entities left.
Q:How do you wring efficiencies from merged hospitals and other pieces of the health system?
A: All the back office functions are
consolidated. We have common standards across the whole health system
for quality, service, financial performance, etc. We have the only truly
integrated health system in New York State. There's nobody else close.
Q: You're an advocate of changing
health care from a "transactional" model, where payments are made for
treating sick people, to one where there's more incentive to prevent
sickness. Please explain how that would work.
A: The way medical care has operated,
hospitals were at the center of the universe. You got sick, you went to
the hospital. When you got sick, we got paid. If you got sick twice, we
got paid twice. If you had shoulder surgery, we got paid. If you had
knee surgery, we got paid. This still exists, by the way.
You want to move to a system whereby
you're responsible for the holistic management of a person's health and
get paid and have the ability to do prevention, wellness promotion, have
people taken care of in the appropriate location and not necessarily
have everybody going to a hospital.
I had five surgeries last year. Two
back surgeries, knee surgery, shoulder surgery, a pulmonary embolism.
Five years ago I would have gone into a hospital [for the shoulder
surgery]. I'd have stayed there for three days. Last Dec. 18, I go in
the morning at 6 o'clock. I'm in an ambulatory site. The surgery took
over four hours. They had to rebuild the shoulder. And I was home on my
couch at Northport at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. There was no need for
me to be in a hospital bed. Most surgery is now done in ambulatory
locations. My guess is 10 years from now, 60 percent of all our care
delivery will be outside the four walls of a hospital. Now it's [roughly
40] percent out and 60 percent in.
Q: How does your insurance unit figure in your plans to move away from fee-for-service health care?
A: The traditional way is an insurance
company will collect a dollar from you, and then I negotiate with them
and I'll get a small percentage of that dollar.
[But] if I get the bulk of the premium
dollar or the total premium dollar [as an insurer], I then can be in
the business of promoting health and managing a person's health as well
as treating illness.
Q: How long will this take?
A: Our insurance company is small. We
have 10,500 members. Our goal is to have in excess of 20,000 members by
the end of the year. Eventually, I can have my own employees in the
insurance plan. I'm talking about a 10-year transition. I want to go
upstream and get the premium dollar. This is not unique across the
country. Everybody says: How is [Oakland, Calif., health care system]
Kaiser Permanente able to do so many innovative things? They've had
their own insurance company.
Q: Is your entry into the insurance business a factor in your merger drive?
A: I can't sell insurance to you if
half of your employees live in Westchester [and I don't have medical
facilities there]. I have to have a network of services in those areas
where people reside.
Q: North Shore-LIJ is growing, and so is its workforce. How do you maintain the organization's culture?
A: We're a huge economic driver in the
community. We hire over 100 people a week. I meet [all new hires] every
Monday morning. You onboard people well, select the right people, put
the right leadership in place, constantly communicate, weed out people
not committed to the organization. But it's constant, constant work.
Q: How could the lessons you've learned in health care be applied to Long Island's economy?
A: We've got to find ways to keep the
young people local so they don't necessarily have to leave for
employment or enjoyment. We need to make housing available, especially
for the young people. We also need to reorganize government. We have
multiple silos of government that need to be streamlined. We put all of
these independent, separate, distinct hospitals together into one
entity. The same could be done for local government units.
Q: U.S. health care is perceived by many as a disaster. Do you share that view?
A: We've got a lot of problems, but
everyone forgets the dramatic success. You're living 35 years longer
today than people born in 1900. The problem is we're having trouble
affording it. It's not a crisis of failure; it's a crisis of success. I
have three stents because I had a 95 percent blockage in one artery and
an 84 percent block in a second and a 95 percent block in my main
artery. Twenty years ago, I would be dead. Stents didn't come in until
the early 1980s. If it was 1981 and I had this problem, what they told
you to do was go home, put your legs up and rest . . . and maybe drink.
Q: With such a large organization, isn't there a danger of complacency?
A: You keep working at it all the
time. No organization is ever perfect. As [football coach] Vince
Lombardi once said: Perfection is not achievable; but if you chase
perfection, you get excellence.
Christopher Kay, President and chief executive, New York Racing Association
Agaton Strom for The Wall Street Journal
ELMONT, N.Y.—In the spring and fall,
Christopher Kay,
chief executive of the New York Racing Association, works in a
spacious office at Belmont Park. From its wide balcony, he looks out
over the thoroughbred racetrack's leafy paddock, sun-dappled picnic
areas and statue of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat.
But
when the racing season shifts to Aqueduct Racetrack twice a year, the
man charged with crafting the nonprofit's long-term strategy—and
spiffing up Belmont for the coming Triple Crown spotlight—shifts to a
more modest office with a grittier view: a Queens parking lot. He'd like
to stay at Belmont year-round, he said, but the aging clubhouse isn't
heated.
So Mr. Kay—like New York's racing fans, trainers, owners and horses—makes do until a better solution comes along.
Christopher Kay
President and chief executive, New York Racing Association
Former managing director of international business development, Universal Parks Resorts
Former chief operating officer, the Trust for Public Land
Former chief operating officer and general counsel, Toys 'R' Us
That may not be far off. NYRA faces a
watershed moment—and not just because a prestigious Triple Crown is on
the line at this year's Belmont Stakes. For 14 years, the nonprofit
corporation has had an operating deficit and suffered a decade of
overall decline in betting. By April 2015, its board must deliver a
strategic plan for the future of its three tracks—Long Island's Belmont,
Aqueduct in Queens and the upstate Saratoga Race Course—to Gov.
Andrew Cuomo,
who in 2012 took control of NYRA's board.
All
options are on the table, including fixing, leasing or even shuttering
any combination of the tracks. Whatever the outcome, the state, which
owns the land, will likely be involved.
Mr. Kay, age 61, took the NYRA reins
in July 2013. A former trial attorney, he has held senior positions in a
diverse range of industries, with career achievements including a new,
revenue-producing strategy for the Trust for Public Land, a pivotal role
in the $6.6 billion sale of Toys 'R' Us and global business development
for Universal Parks & Resorts.
One
thing he didn't have: prior experience operating race tracks or owning
horses. Mr. Kay, a St. Louis native who acknowledged that his fandom
runs deepest for his hometown baseball team, said his learning curve
quickly included a recognition of "how important NYRA was to the rest of
the industry."
That value is rooted in
New York's unique ability to simulcast nearly year-round racing to
national and international wagering sites, by rotating events between
its three venues. In 2013, NYRA's 239 days of racing (less than planned,
due to bad weather) drew a gross total of $2.19 billion in wagering.
That is about 20% of the total bets on thoroughbred racing in the U.S.,
according to NYRA.
"It's fair to say
that as NYRA goes, so goes the rest of the industry," said
Alex Waldrop,
who heads the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the
industry's trade group. "It's critical that there be a healthy NYRA for
the industry to move forward."
For
years, the direction wasn't promising. But in 2006, NYRA filed for
bankruptcy protection and was saved in 2008 when it gave the state its
property rights in exchange for forgiveness of some $200 million in debt
and a percentage of slot-machine revenue from the casino that would
soon adjoin Aqueduct.
According to
NYRA, it has earned $127 million from the Resorts World Casino New York
City, operated by Genting Group. That money is split between earmarks
for bigger purses, operations and capital expenditures.
With NYRA's finances improving, Mr. Kay's central objective this year is "to operate with a break-even or surplus," he said.
But
to meet that goal, he must address long-standing problems—including
outdated infrastructure at all three facilities and the fact that, for
most of the year, the clubhouses resemble ghost towns.
Mr.
Kay, a former Sunday-school teacher who lives in Westchester with his
wife of 36 years, approaches the problem with a Midwestern can-do
attitude.
Citing a business-leadership
book that focuses on taking ego out of the game, he said he focuses
instead on: "What are the most significant problems or opportunities?"
and "Who are the most important stakeholders?"
It's
a way of thinking he exhibited at Trust for Public Land, according to
Adrian Benepe,
senior vice president at the trust. "He was challenging the
organization to do things differently," said Mr. Benepe. "He didn't look
at it just as parks. He looked at: What are the crucial issues?"
There,
Mr. Kay formulated a new strategy to support parks by addressing
Environmental Protection Agency water regulations while creating a new
consulting revenue stream for the trust.
With
his emphasis on stakeholders, it follows that Mr. Kay's biggest NYRA
agenda items include enhancing the guest experience and improving the
quality of racing, which serves fans, bettors and horsemen. For Belmont
Stakes Day, he has created new hospitality options to attract and
impress patrons.
This year, he
introduced the Champagne Room, with bubbly, music, dining tables and an
exclusive outdoor area near the rail for $300 a person.
Guests
who purchased outdoor box seats or second-floor clubhouse seats will
have access to the new Trophy Room, which will have a buffet and the
Belmont and Triple Crown trophies. Those seats, and traditional dining
options, were sold out before the Preakness Stakes.
He is also bringing in bigger-name entertainers than in the past, like LL Cool J.
Ticket prices now range from $10 grandstand admission to $1,000 seats that were added in late May in response to demand.
This,
Mr. Kay recently told the NYRA board, is how the Belmont Stakes will
look going forward. Which makes him sound like someone who plans to
stick around—rather than clean up and pass it all off to the highest
bidder.
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.
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