Bye bye betting parlors

OTB is dead. Long live OTB.
Last week Albany legislators failed to come up with a plan to bail out the failing New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. It would seem that OTB was not too big to fail. The result is that OTB in the city is now defunct, and the betting parlors that have long blemished many neighborhoods are now closing. Good riddance.
Of course, the loss of 1,000 jobs is nothing to gloat about. With tough times in the city they are destined for a long stretch collecting unemployment. But this was long overdue. OTB was the only betting operation in the country that lost money. Leave it to the government to run a bookie business in the red.
Now, all those stores can become opportunities for new businesses to develop and grow and help improve the neighborhoods they will become part of. And the glut of these empty storefronts will mean the landlords will have to offer good deals to fill the space. This is the kind of opportunity that needs to occur for small business to begin coming back and providing more jobs.
The ripple effect of this on horseracing throughout the state is not known yet. Some are crying that the entire industry is in jeopardy. Rather, this should also be an opportunity for the racing business to develop into a profitable, 21st century industry.
With modern technology, betting terminals can open almost anywhere. Already, there are bars and restaurants around the city that offer wagering for horse races, with both large TV screens for group viewing and smaller screens at tables where the bettors can watch the race of their choice.
Instead of relying on the kind of people that were attracted to the smoking, drinking and compulsive gambling atmosphere of the old OTB parlors, the industry can now expand its appeal to a younger, wider audience. Instead of pointing fingers at who is to blame for the demise of OTB, Republicans and Democrats in Albany need to think outside the box and look to the long term.
The operation can be streamlined, without all the overhead, and become a franchise operation that relies more on the private sector and existing infrastructure to focus on what really makes the money in a betting operation – taking bets. Then, horseracing just might start to appeal to a whole new generation of New Yorkers, and make a few bucks for the state in the process.

Robert Hornak is a Queens-based political consultant and executive director of the Queens Republican Party.