New York City's Off-Track Betting, or OTB, the "largest legal gambling operation in the entire country" could be "on the verge of going broke" according to City Councilman David Weprin in the Daily News.
The City run bookie, which has historically been a bad bet(Giuliani often joked about it being the only bookie in town that lost money) is looking forward to another money losing year. Over the past two years the organization has lost $16.5 million from an annual handle of about $1.03 billion. The problem with that billion dollar handle, however, is that by law OTB needs to pay an average of %76 percent back to winning bettors. That leaves their take at $251 million. After paying the racing industry ($94.5 million), the state ($20 million), the city ($17 million) and its 1,545 employees ($125.5 million) all that was left was a deficit of $6 million.
What are OTB's options? Get sold to a private company (which Giuliani tried to do), fix its books, or continue to be a surprising financial drain. We suspect that OTB will stick with draining. How would you fix the OTB?
In other racing news, Intercontinental pulled a 15-1 upset when it won yesterday's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
Photograph of Intercontinental and jockey by Michael J. Marten
