By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — OTBs across the city closed at midnight after the State Senate failed to pass a rescue bill during an emergency session Tuesday.
While the Democrats had been hopeful they would muster enough support to pass the bill, the measure failed 29-21, ending a week-long saga and sealing — for now — the betting houses' fate.
"At midnight tonight, all operations…will be closed," NYC OTB Chairman Larry Schwartz said Tuesday following the vote. He said staffers will be posting signs in windows telling patrons where they can go to close their accounts.
"We gave the Senate one last chance to come through and do the responsible thing. And they didn’t," Schwartz said.
Some OTBs in the city had already shut their doors by 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night while others waited until their scheduled close times so that the agency could collect money more easily, one manager said as he prepared signs to inform patrons of the closure.
Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson blasted Republicans after the vote for putting "political interests over the people’s interests."
"From the tellers and clerks in New York City, to the breeders, farmers, and track workers upstate and on Long Island, the closure of New York City OTB will have a devastating impact on communities across the state," he said in a statement.
More than 1,000 staff members work at 54 locations across the city.
But Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos said that Democrats should have allowed a vote on their version of the bill, which would have provided additional revenue to local governments.
"We offered the right answer to this problem, while Senate Democrats pushed for a political answer," he said.
He urged Schwartz to "keep open negotiations with all parties involved," and said he is "confident we will be able to pass a bill that strengthens OTB and the racing industry and is in the best interests of taxpayers."
The city's Off-Track Betting Corporation had won a temporary reprieve Friday just hours before the gambling empire was last set to shutter its stores, after the Senate agreed to reconvene to vote on legislation that would save the debt-ridden betting houses from closing their doors.
Schwartz vowed then that if the Senate failed to strike a deal, no additional extensions would be granted.
"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 to staff.
NYC OTB is currently buried under $228 million in debt.
At one OTB in Midtown, gamblers were already bemoaning the threatened closure Tuesday evening, although some wondered whether it was yet another false alarm.
"Everybody's sad. No more warm place to hang out in the winter time. No more air conditioning in the summer," said David Tyan, 50, from Queens, who said he visits the shop at West 38th St. and Seventh Avenue every day after work.
"You come here and you know everybody," he said.
Queens resident Derick Anthony, 35, who comes to gamble two to three times a week, gathered with a group of cheering men on what could be the shop's final night.
"Come on, one! Dig 'em in!" he shouted as the horses thundered by on screen.
He said he wins "some decent money sometimes."
Queens resident Brian Mahoney, 53, said he feels worst for the people slated to lose their jobs.
But Eagle Inderjit, 62, from Queens, was convinced OTB would once again find a reprieve.
"How often they say this?" he asked of the closure. "We still have a chance," he said.
During the floor debate in Albany, Democrats had stressed the economic impact the closure would have.
"Merry Christmas everybody. And I hope you'll have a good night sleep knowing these people might not even be able to collect unemployment insurance," State Sen. George Onorato, the Chairman of the State Senate Labor Committee, said as he urged his colleagues to consider impending layoffs as they cast their votes.
"It's sort of a no-brainer," agreed Harlem Sen. Bill Perkins. "With one vote you're able to make a significant difference in at least 800 jobs."
Schwartz said that the closure of the OTB would have far-reaching implications.
"This is going to have a serious impact, not only on the racing industry in the state, but on the economy of the state," he said.
