Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

OTB Gets Last Minute Reprieve After Emergency Meeting

By DNAinfo Staff on December 3, 2010 3:02pm  | Updated on December 4, 2010 9:18am

By Jill Colvin and Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producers

MANHATTAN — The city's Off-Track Betting Corporation has won a temporary reprieve after an emergency meeting on Friday, just hours before the gambling empire was set to shutter its stores.

The corporation's board to directors voted to extend its deadline to midnight on Tuesday, after the Senate agreed to reconvene to vote on legislation that would save the debt-ridden betting houses from closing their doors for good.

It is still unclear whether there will be enough votes for the measure to pass.

"I have called the Senate back into session next Tuesday to vote on the OTB reorganization bill, and am urging our colleagues across the aisle to join us in bipartisan cooperation and action," Senate Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson said in a statement.

"All members of the Senate have a shared responsibility to put the best interests of the people first, and there is no greater interest than protecting New Yorkers' jobs." he said.

OTB Chairman Larry Schwartz vowed that if they fail to strike a deal Tuesday, no additional extensions will be granted.

On Friday, gamblers at the OTB on Park Place in lower Manhattan celebrated their win, even if it may be fleeting.

"I think it's great. We don't want it to close down," said,Brooklyn’s Bob Anthony, 72, who gambles at OTBs every day and described the shop as "our social club."

He said he believes the state will eventually reach an agreement to keep the houses open in the end.

Bronx resident John Brown, 48, another gambling fan, conceded that there would be benefits to closing.

“I’ll have more money. I'll have steak for lunch!" he said. But, he said, "This is our pastime. It's in my blood."

Wynton Pelle, a car repairman from the Bronx who stops by the OTB at W. 58th Street and Seventh Avenue after work every day, said it would be a shame to see the houses close.

"If they take this away from them, where are they going to go?" he asked, gesturing to the dozens of men staring at screens, clutching their numbers inside.

"It gives these men here peace of mind and relaxation," he said. "It’s just like a home away from home."

On Wednesday, the board adopted a plan that would closed OTBs across the city at 5 p.m. today.

Officials had sent out an email to the more than 1,000 staff members warning that Dec. 4 would be the last day that their 54 locations in the city would operate.

While the Assembly in Albany agreed to pass a bailout plan to save OTB on Tuesday, the Senate adjourned without taking up the bill, saying that a complete version hadn't arrived in time for proper consideration.

OTBs are on the verge of closure after the State Senate failed to pass an emergency rescue bill this week.
OTBs are on the verge of closure after the State Senate failed to pass an emergency rescue bill this week.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Jill Colvin

"Without the passage of the bill we run out of cash very quickly and we will have no alternative but to cease all operations," NYC OTB President and CEO Greg Rayburn had written in an e-mail obtained by DNAinfo.

NYC OTB is currently buried under $228 million in debt, and has been yanked back from the brink of closure several times, including in April when Gov. David Paterson struck a deal with creditors to keep OTB's doors open.

Schwartz urged the Senate to agree to the deal or risk thousands of jobs and and as much as $20 million in immediate closing costs.

"When the reorganization plan is in place, NYC OTB will be a profitable, revenue-generating entity for the State of New York; thousands of jobs will be saved; and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars conserved," he promised in a statement announcing the reprieve.

Gov. Paterson also extended his support, saying the plan would "save thousands of jobs and make NYC OTB a revenue generating entity to bring badly-needed resources to the State of New York and the entire racing industry."