Suffolk County also building an OTB parlor
An off-track betting site planned for Long Island, New York is expected to open for business within months, according to a report from CBS New York. But so far, residents of Nassau County have no idea where it will be located.
Newsday reports that Nassau Off-Track Betting could borrow up to $100 million to develop the site, called a “controversial mini-casino” in one press account. OTB President Joseph Cairo has refused to disclose the location of the planned betting hall. Even so, he claims the OTB “considered not only the profitability or the location, but also community concerns.”
Suffolk County’s OTB also has purchased a former movie theater in Medford for $11 million and plans to redevelop it as a betting site. OTB President Phil Nolan says he hopes it will open by late 2015 or early 2016. The agency, which is struggling to emerge from bankruptcy, plans to borrowing $76 million to build and open the betting parlor, Newsday reported.
Each facility is projected to generate up to $160 million a year in profits, a portion of which will go to local and state governments. The OTBs must be located more than 100 feet from homes, churches, and schools, CBS reported. But they could hold up to 1,000 video lottery terminals and electronic table games.
Nassau County legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton is upset about the plans, and the lack of information being shared with the public. “Transparency. That’s what people want. This issue has not come before legislators, so we don’t even know exactly what their plans are,” she said. “The fact that this one agency can take all this power and make all these decisions on their own is, is completely against what I think government should be.”
