Upstate New York officials are demanding answers in what many of them suspect as bribery of elected officials by gifts of sporting tickets from the Western Region Off Track Betting Corp.
Minority Leader Dennis Virtuoso of the Niagara County Legislature wants the New York state legislature to demand that OTB release the names of those who were given tickets to events through the company’s promotional programs.
This comes after allegations several months ago in the Niagara Gazette and the Investigation Post, that tickets to events were given to friends and family connected to local politics. Such tickets are typically reserved for VIP high rollers at the Batavia Downs Casino.
The newspaper stories told how OTB officials declined to give the names of those who used the Suite Ticket Promotion Program, despite a request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law.
OTB claims releasing this information would be an invasion of the recipients’ privacy.
Robert Freedom, executive director of the state’s Committee on Open Government, which controls such records’ access, said the denial has no merit because thousands of people could have seen the ticket recipients attending the event.
