(NO)TB

The New York State Senate didn't address the OTB bill....nor the deficit.
The Senate declined to even consider the OTB plan; with no support expected from the Republicans and its own conference ambivalent, it had no chance. There's a report that the Assembly may take it up regardless, but, without the Senate, it would just be for show.

As usual, we heard the 'b' word bandied about. Crying bailout seems to be a convenient way to summarily dismiss complex matters regarding the horse racing industry that people either can't, or won't, take the time to try and comprehend. Clearly there were aspects of the bill that reeked of special interest or were unfair to certain segments of the industry. But it surely involved no money to bail out anyone. Once again whipping out my slightly outdated 2007 report by the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee, in 2006, NYC OTB paid nearly $15 million to the state in taxes and fees. We can presume those numbers are lower now. But however much less they may be, it's still that much more than zero, which is what the state will receive if Greg Rayburn is true to his word to shut down.

And, NYC OTB paid out over $100,000,000 to the "racing industry" that year. That number, already surely less, was to be slashed as part of the reorganization. Still, there's a lot of money that would cease to be. I guess that's why OTB is throwing around numbers like 40,000 to 70,000 in predicting how many jobs may be lost, despite the fact that they themselves would be laying off "only" around 1,000.

Sure, some of the lost business will be recovered through on-track wagering (if people can still find the tracks) and, NYRA sure hopes, the NYRA Rewards ADW platform. But NYRA will be competing for customers with out-of-state competitors, and is hamstrung in that endeavor by the state's archaic laws which prohibit it from streaming live racing signals online. The blame always comes back to Albany.

Still, NYRA will be in far better shape than Yonkers, which has no ADW of their own. The harness guys preferred to see NYCOTB defunct then see the plan pass as it was, and it remains to be seen if they let their emotions over the obvious inequities in the plan triumph over swallowing hard, eating the losses, and settling for less, as the thoroughbred horsemen (not facing a loss of racing dates) were willing to do. They figured they weren't getting paid now anyway, but they would have been paid something had OTB been permitted to reorganize. Whether business gained through alternate outlets and any wagering platform they are able to establish (not to mention from the possible demise of the sport in NJ) is enough to compensate remains to be seen.

- You'll be happy to know that the Senate Democrats did however manage to re-elect Senator John Sampson as their conference leader. I guess that the Inspector General's report on the AEG selection isn't on the reading lists of NY Senate Democrats. Maybe if he's indicted, someone will notice? And they wonder why they apparently lost their majority status in the election. Presumably, the Republican majority will see to it that appropriate hearings on the matter are convened.