Albany ups power play; State, Legislature, NYRA announce mgmt. deal
 

State withholds NYRA casino payments and threatens racing franchise
By Matt Hegarty

Citing a "continued failure to act in the best interest of racing" by the New York Racing Association, state racing regulators said Tuesday that they had instructed the state lottery to immediately suspend payments NYRA receives from a casino at Aqueduct racetrack and that they were exploring the revocation of NYRA's racing franchise.

These politicians in NY have no shame.

None.. As foreshadowed a couple of weeks ago, Cuomo and henchmen continue to position themselves to take everything. Very sad. Meanwhile, the industry remains silent while the 30% of national handle for which NYRA accounts, hangs in the balance. The 'best interest' of racing invocation is comical. NYRA quit their land claim as part of the franchise renewal in an effort to avoid a protracted legal battle that might have included a shutdown. That wasn't in the best interest of racing? Every move from Albany is an intrusive, expensive burden on anyone that has an interest in the sport. They won't be happy until they destroy it.

Incredible, what a bunch of lying thieves that adorn the statehouse in Albany. Amazing that it doesn't bother these crooks that two of their own have been convicted of corruption in the last few weeks alone. There will be more to come. They all need to be thrown out!

If the standard is ethics and acting in the best interest of taxpayers, the entire NY Legislature should immediately be locked up as the biggest offenders. Shame on Sabini for signing off on this scam.

Easy for Me to Say
 

I wish we could leave out all public money,levies,taxes,support systems and make thoroughbred racing entirely privately funded and privately profitable
Long term I can't think of any state ran programme or oversight,controlled process that politicians have ran that has not ultimately ruined or made far less profitable.
Why can't the stuarts of our sport run it the same way they made millions in privet business?:mad::confused:

It was only a matter of time before legislatures removed the expensive horse part of the equation so they could get more money, no shock. NYRA just gave them a reason.

NYRA didn't give them a reason. They were going to find a reason no matter what was really happening. The funny thing is the NYRWB was supposed to know about the takeout reduction too, but they are being let off scot-free. If it wasn't that, it would have been jockey weight-gate or maitre d' gate or something else stupid. I'm not saying the takeout mistake was as minor as those, but in the grand scheme of things the amount was trivial.

True, in the letter they listed three bullet points so I am sure they were just waiting to pounce.

Looks to me like if the people at NYRA would have followed the terms as they agreed, and would have not ripped off the betting public, this probably would have been avoided... icing on the cake appears to be the promotion of the people who were at the helm when the takeout "issue" was going on.

Are they canning the entire NYRWB too?

I don't know, are they?

All I know is what is written in the articles and the documents. As an outsider, it doesn't look particularly good for the NYRA people. I realize most articles are written to sway perception in a certain direction.

NYRA just seems to be in a **** storm all the time...

Leave it to you to get the issue totally backwards.

They were knowingly stealing bettors money. Whatever happens to them and the franchise is well deserved. Each individual that was knowingly involved should also get jail time, starting with Hayward, and extending through the entire NYRA. Whether there is a political agenda or not, thats inconsequential. The fact is they were stealing, and knew they were doing it.

NY is the king of the handout states. Somebody has to pay for all the handouts you Liberals want so why not take over racing and rape it like they rape the rest of us NYer's?

The present NYSRWB will be gone in October as it will be merged with the Lottery commission. The new commission will have an executive director and 7 members to oversee the Lottery and Racing, with 5 of the 7 members picked by Cuomo.

I wonder if Frank Stronach heard about this yet?:D

Consequences for actions.....

Thanks so much for clarifying this. The dumbass that I am mistook this for glorified extortion by politicions seeing a window of opportunity and seizing it. And you present the perfect solution, simply insure we have republicans in office and this stuff would never happen... Thanks again.

If you hate NY so much, why don't you move someplace else? I hear Mississippi has a low tax burden.

Sure, let's do that. And the first thing that will happen is the tracks will get bought up by real estate developers and torn up.