Results tagged “offtrackbetting”

Word is that some residents of Morris Park in the Bronx were not too happy when a vacant storefront transformed into an Off-Track Betting. On June 19th the Community Board's district manager, John Fratta, began receiving many angry phone calls from locals, after which he called the OTB offices to ask if they were opening a storefront in the neighborhood. They didn't know anything about it. By Monday, the confused community got some clarity when “We found out it was a movie, but they forgot to notify the neighborhood. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing. The outcry was unbelievable.” Bronx native Nick Sandow is filming his movie Ponies in the area, so take a deep breath Morris Parkers, we'd wager that everything will be okay. And OTB, don't get any ideas, Senator Jeff Klein says, “It is incumbent on all of us to ensure new establishments speak to the community before opening their doors"—and from the sound of it, the natives don't fancy you too much.

After years of warnings, the city's Off Track Betting business may be out of luck as Mayor Bloomberg said the city may pull its funding and let the gambling business close. He told the OTB Board of Directors, "The City simply cannot take dollars away from schools and hospitals to pay for a gambling operation. We have no business subsidizing betting parlors at the expense of City taxpayers, particularly at a time when we're asking all agencies to cut their budgets." And what's more, the board agreed and approved the shutdown!