Thursday, October 6, 2016

andrew cuomo joins chris chrisie as he funds joseph

mondello's errand boy joseph g cairo in under over deal not to be revealed before election day

the last otb retirement incentive did not do as planned see newsday articles

the execution list , the cost reduction plan filed by otb with the gaming commissionhas been the subje t of multiple freedom of information law requests but has not been released to the public and otb employees

What neither cairo nor cuomo have addressed is that the otb system in new york needs systemic change and less thievery at the top. people at the bottom work and have been ill served by the actions of joseph g cairo and dino amoroso!

NY gaming commission approves Nassau $26M casino deal

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Guests play slot machines at Resorts World Casino

Guests play slot machines at Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct in Queens. The state gaming commission approved a $26M deal between Nassau OTB and the operators of the casino. Photo Credit: Jason Andrew 


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The State Gaming Commission has approved a deal between Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. and Genting New York LLC, which operates Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct, providing the county with $26 million in revenue over the next three years, officials said.
The Commission approved the agreement Tuesday after a nearly two-month review, said spokesman Lee Park.
The deal, passed by state lawmakers in April, stipulates that Genting will pay OTB $9 million by the end of 2016; $9 million in 2017/18 and $25 million every year afterward. In exchange, OTB transfers its authority to host 1,000 video slot machines to Resorts World.
STORYChurch to buy Nassau OTB building for $3.2M
OTB gives Nassau $3 million in 2016 as part of the deal, $3 million in 2017/18 and $20 million every year thereafter, according to Adam Barsky, chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Committee, a state oversight board in control of the county’s finances. Barsky, who has been briefed on the plan, said he wants OTB “to get to a break even point” so that it could eventually provide the full $25 million to the county.
Nassau OTB chairman Joseph Cairo said the Genting revenue, combined with savings from new voluntary retirement incentives for agency employees and refinancing the Race Palace building in Plainview, should allow OTB to “break even in seven years.” 
Cairo called the Genting deal critical for the agency’s “survival” and said it will allow OTB “to generate revenue for Nassau for years to come.”
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Genting spokesman Michael Levoff said the agreement allows Resorts World “to embark on an ambitious expansion project, which will mean more jobs and greater opportunity for our local community.”
Newsday filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the commission in August for both the agreement and a plan submitted by OTB stipulating how it will eliminate $12 million in agency debt. Park said the request is still under review.
OTB receives $5 million next week as part of the deal and another $4 million by year’s end, Cairo said. Beginning in April 2017, Genting will make $750,000 monthly payments to OTB, totaling $9 million for the year. In April 2018, or sooner if the video slot machines are in place, Genting will send OTB monthly payments of just over $2 million, or $25 million annually, with the amount adjusted for inflation.
County Executive Edward Mangano said the deal is “good news” for taxpayers who receive “new dollars without the burden of new costs.”
If Genting is delayed in installing the video slot machines, the $25 million payment gets deferred until no later than April 2019. In that situation, OTB receives $9 million.
If Resorts World receives approval in the coming years to open a casino with table games, OTB can renegotiate the deal to increase their revenue percentage, according to sources familiar with the deal.
But if gambling revenue at Resorts World drops by more than 10 percent — or if a casino opens within 65 miles of Aqueduct and Resorts World is not permitted to operate its own table games — Genting can renegotiate the deal to reduce its payments, sources said.
Cairo said OTB will use the Genting payments to pay off the balance of a $3 million short-term note, originally due in March, to a Manhattan investment bank. OTB made a $1.7 million payment in July after the sale of its Farmingdale branch building, and now owes $1.3 million, Cairo said.
OTB ended 2015 with a deficit of more than $7 million.
Nassau and Suffolk received state authority to operate up to 1,000 video slot machines in 2013. But Nassau was unable to find a location willing to accept a gambling parlor. 

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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

unlv law professor assigns projects to study nassau and suffolk otb

snd new york laws


Jackpot: Lawyers and Advisers Made Over $300 Million at Caesars

Firm received approval to pay lawyers, investment bankers, financial advisers and tax consultants more than $107 million since start of case, papers show

Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. recently announced a settlement of its $18 billion restructuring.ENLARGE
Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. recently announced a settlement of its $18 billion restructuring. PHOTO: FRANCIS JOSEPH DEAN/NEWSCOM/ZUMA PRESS
The bill for Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.’s year- and-a-half-long battle with creditors is in. And it comes to $301.3 million.
The casino company disclosed the cost in a bankruptcy-court filing Friday, days after announcing a settlement that will bring peace to the $18 billion restructuring. The fees and expenses, which Caesars paid between the date of its Jan. 15, 2015, bankruptcy filing through Aug. 31, 2016, have gone to the roughly two dozen law, investment-banking, consulting and other professional firms on its chapter 11 payroll.
The chapter 11 case of CEOC, the operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp., has been a battle from the start, when a group of junior bondholders, including hedge funds Appaloosa Management LP and Oaktree Capital Management LP, sought to force CEOC into involuntary bankruptcy.
Lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP quickly filed a voluntary chapter 11 petition for CEOC to take control of its restructuring. Since then, the company has butted heads with the junior bondholders and, from time to time, other creditor groups, on several issues throughout the case.
Represented by lawyers at Jones Day, the junior bondholders’ ultimate goal was to increase their gains on the bonds by calling on Caesars and its private-equity backers— Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG—to contribute more funding to the restructuring in exchange for broad liability releases. 
.millionTHE WALL STREET JOURNALFees and expenses for Jan. and Feb. 2015, which are excluded from the chart, totaled $37,858.Source: Bankruptcy-court filingsCaesars' Bankruptcy GambleBankruptcy advisers to Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. and itscreditors have collected more than $300 million to date.April ’15JulyOct.Jan. ’16AprilJuly000$0
April 2016$1.6976854000000002e-53
For months, Apollo and TPG weren’t included in Caesars’s offer to provide financial support to the restructuring, though the private-equity firms were slated to share in liability releases. After 20 months of fighting to hang onto their stakes, Apollo and TPG recently agreed to surrender all of their Caesars equity to CEOC creditors.
The victory—which is expected to increase junior bondholders’ recoveries to about 66 cents on the dollar from an original offer of nine cents—came at a cost.
Court papers show CEOC won approval to pay its lawyers, investment bankers, financial advisers and tax consultants more than $107 million from the start of the case through May 31. During the same time, the court approved $24.3 million in bills from the junior bondholders’ advisers.
“This case is one of many when we’ve seen private-equity owners get pretty aggressive, and it imposes costs on creditors when they do that,” said Stephen Lubben, a law professor at Seton Hall University.
The fees that such professionals charge are publicly disclosed and subject to court approval. Such transparency is a hallmark of chapter 11, in which companies must pay a price to win breathing room from their creditors and other benefits.
Not only does CEOC have to foot the bills of its advisers—apart from Kirkland, they include investment bankers at Millstein & Co. and a chief restructuring officer from AlixPartners LLP—but also those of its creditors. 
There are two official creditor committees, for the junior bondholders and unsecured creditors, whose bills the company is legally obligated to pay.
CEOC also paid the professional fees of two creditor groups that have consistently supported its restructuring—its senior bank lenders and senior bondholders. While not required, it is common for a company in bankruptcy to throw money to such creditors in exchange for their backing.
Adding another layer of cost to the case was the court-appointed examiner. Last year, the bankruptcy court asked Richard J. Davis, a former Watergate prosecutor, to lead an investigation potential legal claims around which the restructuring disputes centered.
Court papers show Mr. Davis’s yearlong probe cost a little over $56 million, which included his discounted $850 hourly rate plus the discounted fees of lawyers at Winston & Strawn LLP and Luskin, Stern & Eisler LLP as well as financial advisers at Alvarez & Marsal Global Forensic and Dispute Services.
Reached Monday, Mr. Davis declined to comment.
To keep an eye on the fees, the bankruptcy court appointed a fee examiner—University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor Nancy Rapoport. Court papers show she has received nearly $409,000 to date for digging into the various bills and pointing out areas of concern, such as overuse of expensive partners for work that could be performed by cheaper lawyers.
Reached Monday, Ms. Rapoport said her compensation covers her fees plus those of law students and alumni who helped her monitor the cost of the CEOC case. She said good fee examiners save the court time and can lead to improved billing practices by professionals working on a case.
“I think we’re successful on both fronts,” she said. 
Court filings show CEOC spent $12.1 million last month, but payments reached more than $28 million in one month last year. 
“Those fees are about what we would expect for a case of this size and complexity,” said UCLA law professor Lynn LoPucki, who created a fee calculator to estimate the cost of a large chapter 11 case.
The fees charged in the CEOC case, while high, don’t measure up to the costs of larger, even more complex cases. 
The chapter 11 case for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 and emerged in March 2012, cost $1.89 billion. 
The fees are still stacking up as professionals continue to manage Lehman’s assets and pay its creditors, though court papers show annual costs have fallen from $338.7 million in 2013 to $185 million last year. The continuing work this year has cost $92.7 million through August.
Write to Jacqueline Palank at jacqueline.palank@wsj.com