Down to the wire … OTB is a vanishing breed

James, a 30-year-old Staten Island resident was hard at work with a crew of men hauling off the remnants of the Steinway Street Off-Track Betting (OTB) outpost in Astoria, right down to the soiled office chairs and piles of old twisted metal.
As the men worked, pedestrians stopped in their tracks to stare at the “FOR RENT” sign on a window and read the closure notices posted on the door of what has been an institution - some might call it blight - on the urban landscape of Astoria and other blocks throughout New York City for decades.
At one point, a regular yanked on the front door of 28-15 Steinway Street only to look up in surprise at the rattle of the door’s lock.
“To hell with ‘em,” he muttered - but only after a few minutes of staring in disbelief.
The Steinway location, which ceased business operations on Saturday, February 23, and a Staten Island branch are the first of 73 citywide OTBs to close their doors because the parent company, New York City OTB Corporation (NYC OTB), is losing money.
According to Mayor Bloomberg, who urged all of NYC OTB to call it quits, the corporation is headed toward a sea of red ink by this June.
“I believe that if OTB is unable to operate without taxpayer subsidies, then it should not operate - period,” Bloomberg said in a statement on February 19, the day OTB voted to implement a June 15 closing plan, which will cost around 1,500 workers their jobs.
Mark Rosenbaum, however, sees things differently. The Acting Chief of Staff for NYC OTB claimed his company turns an operating profit of between $120 and $130 million but suffers because the state requires that it make financial distributions to various entities based on revenues instead of profits.
In recent years, Rosenbaum said, the state has added new burdens such as a regulatory fee. If only the state would cut OTB some slack, the business could continue to operate and the over $1 billion in annual wagers would continue to pour in, he said.
As for all the money that would have been spent at OTB branches around the city had they remained open, Rosenbaum thinks much of it will be lost, as bettors are not prepared to trade in their coveted social setting for cyberspace.
Nevertheless, James and his crew continued to clean out the Steinway storefront, expediting a crossover from brick and mortar betting into uncertainty - bullies invading the neighborhood and destroying the playground, albeit a seedy one, all for a buck.
However, James and the guys were not OTB employees it turned out, nor were they from an outside contracting company brought in to do the dirty work. They were volunteers.
“It’s a shame. We used this place to hang out a lot,” said James, a former Astoria resident who was accustomed to enduring a ferry and train ride from Staten Island four days a week to meet his buddies and bet on thoroughbreds.
While the 28-15 Steinway location was a sobering sight with unsuccessful betting slips clinging to the empty floor like confetti after a ticker tape parade, Blackstone Restaurant & Pub a few blocks down on Broadway showed no signs of resignation.
Horses raced across flat screens in an upstairs room as local Greek men clustered together around tables as if they were playing cards, yelling loudly when the hand was finally dealt.
“We use it as a coffee shop,” said an area resident who declined to give his name because “sometimes we skip from the wives also.”
“I kill my time [here]. But now [that OTB is closing] I can save my money,” he said, smiling as if a larger savings account was hardly a fair tradeoff.
A man called “Russell” was not concerned with money but rather with convenience.
“I’m devastated. [OTB] is a convenience, really, as opposed to going to the track and all that,” he said, explaining that he spent time at the first OTB in Grand Central Station and is a regular at Blackstone.
“How many bets [have I made]? Ha! Thousands. Thousands! Twenty a day at least,” he said.
Jim Maney, Executive Director of the New York Council on Problem Gambling thinks people like “Russell” will not be so quick to call off their bets.
“The gambling industry will find a way to keep people gambling. Gamblers will find a way to keep gambling,” Maney said.
“Things will go back to the old time with more illegal methods of gambling. A local bookie at the bar will take bets or people will go on the Internet,” said Maney, whose organization is hyperlinked on OTB’s website and has a 1-800 number on the back of lottery tickets.
However, Maney is not so sure OTB will really shut down.
Rosenbaum has the same mindset. He said OTB employees have not been directly informed of the decision to close shop and, under law, don’t have to be notified until mid April, because the company is ostensibly betting on a reprieve.
Marie Welch, while not directly employed by OTB, is fearful for what would happen in OTB’s absence, though she, too, remains optimistic.
“All these people will be gone definitely,” Welch said, sweeping her hand across Blackstone’s OTB parlor as she sat atop the bar she has tended for 14 years.
“They’re only coming here to bet, not really to drink,” she said.
Across town at the 94-00 Liberty Avenue OTB in Ozone Park, the tables and social club had been replaced with what looked like an airport baggage claim, swarms of Guyanese men - there were no women in either establishment other than the tellers - slapping rolled up racing forms against the walls and screaming, clapping, swearing.
A bulletin board advertised the day’s tracks - Bay Meadows in San Mateo, CA; Turf Paradise in Phoenix, AZ; Beulah Park in Grove City, OH - and men placed their bets through slots in scratched bulletproof windows.
A man named Phil, leaning against a wall, said he’d been coming to the Liberty Avenue location since it opened about 15 years ago. How had he fared over the years?
“Under. Under! What are you kidding me? Cost me over $100,000. What are you nuts?” Phil exclaimed, keeping one eye on the bank of televisions overhead.
Moonie Ramnarine, a portrait of calm compared to Phil, said he developed a fondness for horseracing back in Guyana and began coming to the Liberty Avenue OTB out of boredom when he first went on disability after an injury at work.
Ramnarine said the prospect of trading in the OTB, which he “fell in love with,” for phone or Internet betting is daunting. Nevertheless, he is willing to give it a shot.
“[Gambling in Guyana] is more entertainment. Here, people make a living off it,” he said.
Ramnarine’s soft-spoken words were overshadowed by a man’s repeated shouts of “Come on five! Come on five. Five can’t lose!”
Five ended up winning - but six lost, and the guy had bet on a five-six combination finish.
The outcome was eerily similar to that of OTB - winning on one end, losing on the other, but still betting on a victory.