It was Mark Twain who first said “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” If the management of the former New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation (NYC OTB) is to be believed, the same goes for them, too.
In a last-ditch meeting on Saturday, April 17 – one day before the NYC OTB board said they would shut down – they voted to rescind the lay-off notices to more than 1,300 employees and stay in operation for “another year.”
According to NYC OTB chair Meyer “Sandy” Frucher, they will sit down with creditors including the New York Racing Association (NYRA) and come up with a long-term plan acceptable to the bankruptcy court, the racing industry and the state government.
NYC OTB handles nearly $1 billion in wagers annually and owes more than $65 million – including $15 million to NYRA – just to its top 20 creditors, according to its bankruptcy filing.
On Wednesday, April 14, Governor David Paterson sent an OTB bailout plan to the Legislature, which went home for the weekend without looking at it. As late as that Friday, state officials were presuming the beleaguered bet-taker dead, with Governor Paterson saying, “I am deeply saddened that we could not find a workable solution during this fiscal crisis to save any of these jobs.”
Nevertheless, Frucher said that progress in negotiations convinced the board to keep the doors open. “All parties recognized that closing NYC OTB now would be a catastrophe to the racing industry,” he said at the meeting.
OTB’s plan includes cutting costs “severely,” shutting down 2/3 of its betting parlors, making “deep cuts” in both labor and management and withholding payouts to the industry. They plan to replace parlors with kiosks and machines in sports bars.
The sudden turn-around and assumptions by OTB caused consternation in some quarters. “They cried poverty one week and the next week they say they can keep their doors open for another year?” Austin Shafran, a senate Democratic majority spokesperson asked incredulously.
A source close to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver cast doubt on speedy approval of the kiosk/betting machine plan, saying, “He’s not a big fan of gambling to begin with and he’s not likely to look favorably on putting more betting machines for horse races . . . in bars all over the city.”
