Quote:
OTB ? Oh I get it Off the Boat

OTB closing shop is only going to make underground gambling even stronger.

I went into one of these once out of pure morbid curiosity and there are certainly some interesting characters hanging around there. It's almost as bad as standing behind someone at a convenience store purchasing about $50 worth of either Pick-3, pick-4, or scratch off tickets...

That reminds me, isn't Powerball or Mega Millions like $200mm now?

I bet they weren't betting on that.

I am glad to see them go - those places are magnets for poor dumb derelicts.

Hey, Texas has added a $50 lottery "scratch" ticket -- guess it never ends...

http://www.lotterypost.com/news/155687

See article below - what shocks me is that taxpayers were subsidizing this in the first place... Nuts...

BN 13:14 New York City Off-Track Betting Board Votes to Close Business


By Chris Dolmetsch
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The board of New York City's Off-
Track Betting Corp., the first legal off-site pari-mutuel
wagering operation in the U.S., voted today to shut down the
business at the urging of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg, who controls the board, said in November that the
city is facing a $2.7 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year
and couldn't afford to inject more money into OTB. He asked
Chairman David Cornstein to draft a plan to shut it down.

``If OTB is unable to operate without taxpayer subsidies,
then it should not operate -- period,'' Bloomberg said in a
prepared statement today. ``The city simply cannot take dollars
away from schools and hospitals to pay for a gambling
operation.''

OTB, which collects more than $1 billion in bets a year, is
required by legislative mandates to compensate the racing
industry based on gross revenue. In 2006, the business had a $125
million operating profit, yet had to pay the state's racing
industry $98 million. City Comptroller William Thompson said OTB
might run out of money by June.

According to the closing plan, operations would stop June 15
and layoffs would be effective the next day. Notices of job cuts
would go out April 17. Two parlors, one in Astoria, Queens, and
one in the New Dorp section of Staten Island, would close by
month-end.

OTB was created by a referendum in 1963 to put private
illegal bookies out of business and started operation in April
1971. It takes bets at about 70 locations throughout the city and
via the Internet and telephone.


Jobs Lost


About 1,500 workers would lose their jobs in an OTB
shutdown. Since 2004, the business has cut 14 percent of its
workers and closed six branches.

Today's decision comes as state politicians are near
agreement on a $105 million plan to bail out the New York Racing
Association, which operates thoroughbred horseracing tracks at
Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga.

Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP,
the parent company of Bloomberg News.


--Editors: Charlotte Porter, Mark Schoifet.