State investigating NYRA takeout issues; Hayward, Kehoe terminated

[Riot]

New York Racing Association CEO Charles Hayward knew NYRA was over-charging bettors, state report claims

NYRA called overage a 'mistake' when notified in December

By Jerry Bossert / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, April 30, 2012, 2:10 PM

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/mo...#ixzz1tZ2QPFH9

The report cites emails between Hayward and Steve Crist, the publisher and columnist for the Daily Racing Form in which Crist passed along an email from a reader indicating that takeout rates "had expired and were outside the parameters of the Racing Law."

According to the report, "Mr. Hayward emailed Mr. Crist on August 1, 2011 confirming that the reader was correct and requested that Mr. Crist keep the information confidential. Mr. Crist agreed."

Crist repeated the story about the reader's email and then told the News, "I didn't know they were overcharging at the time. I asked Charlie (Hayward) if NYRA was going to apply for a lower takeout rate and he said, ‘not now.’ I didn't know until December like everyone else. If I did, we (the Daily Racing Form) would have put it on the front page."

The report hints that Hayward may not have lowered the takeout rates due to perceived political and financial reasons as NYRA was in debt in both 2010 and 2011.

"Off the record, we have been working on this for some time," the report quotes another email to Crist saying. "We originally had thought that we would announce this for Saratoga but political forces intervened. Since we are showing substantial losses in 2010 and 2011 and we have been smacked around by Cuomo (and he could check the SRWB from approving), we decided to wait.

"Also, the regional OTBs who collectively lost money in 2010 will scream like stuck pigs and that would provoke (Dean) Skelos who is very tight with the guys who run Nassau OTB to introduce anti-NYRA legislation for the benefit of the OTBs," the email continues. "Finally, we are quietly working on a plan to open 10 or so restaurant/bars in the city and we did not want the politicos to block this effort. We have some internal debates on how much to lower each pool and how we would present this to our simo customers, the consumers and the politicos. I would appreciate it if you could keep these details confidential."

On Dec. 28, NYRA lowered the takeout and refunded monies to those they were able to track down the discrepancies through account wagering.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/mo...#ixzz1tZ1rlo1K