Nassau OTB settles multimillion-dollar suit
Nassau Off-Track Betting Corporation and the state's harness racing tracks have finally come settled a years-long, multimillion-dollar legal battle, regarding payments that were owed to the tracks by OTB since 2004.
According to Arthur Walsh, counsel for Nassau OTB, the organization hasn't made any payments since 2004 to harness tracks — including Batavia Downs, Yonkers Raceway and Buffalo Raceway — for annual simulcasting proceeds.
He added that current Nassau OTB president Joseph Cairo's administration came on in 2010, a year after the lawsuit was filed, for payments that the prior administration was responsible for. "The bulk of what was owed in the lawsuit predates the [current] administration," he said, explaining why it years to sort out the details of the suit and come to a settlement.
Nassau OTB’s total liability is $4.5 million — the largest amount of debt among regional OTBs in the state. The New York Racing and Wagering Board — which sided with harness tracks on the case — gave the corporation an Oct. 31 deadline last spring to pay $647,000 — its debt to harness tracks for 2010 alone, but that deadline was extended several times, until very recently, when the groups began to seriously discuss terms of an agreement.
"We believe that we came to what we felt was a fair settlement" with the harness tracks, Walsh said, adding that OTB will not disclose how much money will be paid, according to the settlement. He explained that OTB and Yonkers Racecourse — the main party involved in the case — agreed that the details of the settlement would be kept confidential.
"It's a multimillion-dollar claim — there's a lot of moving pieces, there are a lot of other parties involved, other than Nassau OTB," he added.
Nassau OTB is comprised of 20 branches, including one in Franklin Square, on Hempstead Turnpike; Farmingdale, Carle Place, Freeport and Levittown.
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