ALL BETS OFF!

The betting windows are officially closed.
The State Senate voted down a bill that would have kept New York City’s foundering Off-Track Betting (OTB) operations afloat on Tuesday, December 7 – now the operation’s closure is imminent.
The bill, which would have restructured OTB so that their debts could be settled, was voted down 29 to 21. The bill was drafted by Governor David A. Paterson and passed the Assembly last month.
State officials set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the bill to pass. Without the bill to rescue their operation, OTB’s Board must decide whether or not to shut down the parlors and lay off its nearly 1,000 workers.
The OTB currently owes creditors $67 million, including millions to the New York Racing Association (NYRA), which runs Belmont Park and Saratoga. Under the restructuring plan, NYRA would have assumed control of OTB’s telephone and Internet betting system, which would have offset much of the debt.
The restructuring plan would have also reduced overhead costs for the bankrupt OTB Corporation and still cut hundreds of jobs, but it would have kept the organization open.
Prior to the bill’s failure to pass, OTB Chairman Larry Schwartz said in a statement that closing New York City OTB would likely be catastrophic to the racing industry in New York, as well as the families of those employed by the company.
“Closing NYC OTB is a complicated and costly prospect, with an immediate cost of as much as $20 million to state taxpayers as well as a fiscal impact on the counties of Nassau and Saratoga and the City of Yonkers,” Schwartz said. “Closure would also mean the immediate loss of jobs statewide and a substantial loss of revenue to the racing industry and the state.”