NYRA Replays And Audio Return To Website

Someone in Albany relented and allowed NYRA to show it's product on the NYRA website. I guess people were not streaming into to OTB to pay a 5% surcharge just because live audio and replays were not available on the NYRA website. After a few months of not being able to offer replays of its races the replay website returned yesterday. It is a good idea to bookmark the replay link as for weeks the link from the NYRA page was blocked to satisfy the corrupt legislators while the website for actually functioned with replays being available while the NYRA website stated this;

For regulatory purposes, NYRA is not permitted at this time to provide a link to our race replays. NYRA understands and regrets this inconvenience for our fans who have come to rely upon these services.

Please be assured NYRA is doing everything within its power to work with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board to restore this link to our web site as soon as possible..

OTB Corruption Blocks NYRA Replays On Website

On top of the 1% takeout hike demanded by OTB, now OTB has legally blocked NYRA's ability to show replays on NYRA's own website. When you go to the NYRA website the quoted message below appears.

People that think this game needs more centralized government regulation do not understand how government works or lack the experience of dealing with government bureaucracy. More centralized regulation empowers the government parasite to bleed racing until it dies like the powerful and corrupt New York government bleeds racing in New York. Racing needs to clean it's own house before allowing government parasites to attach themselves to the circultory system.

Link to NYRA replays

For regulatory purposes, NYRA is not permitted at this time to provide a link to our race replays. NYRA understands and regrets this inconvenience for our fans who have come to rely upon these services.

Please be assured NYRA is doing everything within its power to work with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board to restore this link to our web site as soon as possible.

Government Corruption In New York Continues

Horrific government corruption continues in New York. Fueled by the liberal misconception that that a large government will cure all socials ills, OTB has forced the NY government to raise NYRA takeout across the board. The government continues to grow year after year in New York like a malignant tumor. 26% takeout on pick 4's is a horrific cross to bear for horseplayers. NYRA has had some handle growth this year and NYRA was completely dominating Magna, Twin Spires tracks and Keeneland this year. Now with the takeout increasing the churn is going to drop and the NYRA handle growth will reverse to a handle dip. The total amount that the government leaches from horseplayers will dip as the handle crashes due to the increased takeout.

Spitzer used racing to cement his reputation as crime fighter

The New York Attorney Generals office took up interest in racing when the slots were approved. There were many headline grabbing scandals, from the A-One Rocket/Gambling ring indictment, the Mutuel Clerk issue, the Waiter taking big tips front pager and the Jockey weight scandal.
All of these headlines grabbed front page news and were used as leverage to try to discredit NYRA out of the slot casino. In the end they were publicity stints and the only convictions were in the mutuel clerk scandal were 16 clerks were convicted of cheating on their taxes in a scheme were they shorted their till at the racetrack. Spizter spent millions on these crusades and used them to build his reputation as corruption fighting progressive crusader. The New York Times reported one Spitzer racing scandal after another and started to refer to NYRA as the "beleaguered NYRA, "another scandal" The New York Times was doing Spitzers bidding. Was the underlying reason for these crusades just to secure the Aqueduct casino for his Manhattan real estate mogul friend Richard Fields? With the backing of the New York Times and a complete stranglehold on the New York media Spitzer was elected with 69% of the vote, the people fell for what he was selling hook line and sinker.

The people hurt by Spitzer are not just the taxpayers and his family. Those particularly devastated by Spitzer's corruption are those that got caught in the steamroller. How about the life of Braulio Baeza and Mario Scalafani? These two were caught up in the jockey scandal. This scandal was headline news back in 2005 and helped cement Spitzer's reputation as a corruption fighter. However there was no crime, just headlines and a complete misunderstanding of the rules of races. The case was quietly thrown out of court last September after three years of court battles. Costing the taxpayers millions of dollars and ruining the family's of two men.

With the complete ruination of Spitzers career the lesson for the mases is do some research before you vote. Heartfelt commercials should not be the only thing they look at when the examine who they vote for. Spitzer received 69% of the vote and the steamroller only took a little more than a year to expose himself as a arrogant criminal. Someone should have pointed the steamroller to proverb 16:18. Looks like Joe Bruno is going to have to help get the steamroller out of the ditch.

NYRA and Albany close the deal

Reports over the wire indicate that NYRA has closed a deal with Albany and the greatest racing in the world will continue tomorrow (weather permitting). Hopefully in the language of the deal there are some changes to the revenue sharing and NYRA gets to keep some of its profits for facility improvement. More good news is that the Slot shack will only be located at Aqueduct and not Belmont, which keeps that historic facility in tact. Looking forward to bigger purses and the best racing in the world, NYRA racing. See you handicappers on Saturday at our beloved Big-A.

Noble NYRA leading the way to Albany

The citizens have had enough of the corruption within New York State government. It was about time that somebody or something did something. Spitzer was touted as a vessel of change but like Obama today those are clearly empty promises that are only believed by media consuming drones. NYRA is a true vessel of change and will march on Albany to demand change. Could you believe as a racing fan that of all the people, officials, companies and organizations within the state it took NYRA to lead the charge on Albany to end the corruption?

After being a victim of its own poorly arranged business model and a victim of its own institutional indolence NYRA has emerged as a powerhouse of change within the state. Refusing to yield to the ineptitude of Spitzer/Silver who do not value or understand racing. Refusing the submit to the corruption of Bruno who treats racing as yet another franchise of his Sons lobbying business. NYRA has held its ground and is ready to force real change into the racing laws of New York.

NYRA has the fortitude to forgo short-term profits for the long term health of the industry in New York. NYRA is taking the lead in many issues such as the broken model where all profits are rolled in the Albany corruption machine. NYRA is also taking a stand on the OTB and the parasitic relationship with racing where massive amounts of management is needed for six separate OTB regional organizations. NYRA is ensuring that the long delayed slots have a fair revenue sharing agreement in place.

Thank you NYRA for providing the best entertainment in New York state and thank you for standing up to the corrupt regime that we live under. We as racing fans are looking forward to even better racing once NYRA cleans house in Albany.

The masses and the media are completely clueless on the ongoing New York franchise ordeal

It looks like Spitzer is now leaning towards installing 4500 slot machines at Belmont Park. After opposing the slots for months Spitzer has changed his stance on the issue. Is this a compromise with Bruno to get this desperately overdue process over? Have all of the kickbacks and backroom deals been allocated? With the media derelict of its duty to inform the only information available is on the internet. One must troll the various TBA BLOGS or messages boards to stay up to date.

The mainstream press and the masses seem to be clueless on this issue. Can the local paper Newsday at least get the name of Belmont correct? It is Belmont Park not Belmont raceway. When professional reporters can not get the names correct you know we are dealing with rank amateurs. The journalistic equivalent of a 5K maiden claimer. Newsday is a complete embarrassment and Paul Moran has become a beacon of truth since leaving that mis-informer of the masses.


Belmont is a beautiful property and the crown jewel of sports venues in the New York City metro area. With an average handle around $10 million dollars a day Belmont does not need slots to succeed. With smart management and a benevolent regulator Belmont could expand its handle and attendance. However the greedy hand of the ever growing government continues to undermine racing operations. The approval of VLT's or slots has little to nothing to do with growing purses but is a means to expand the States vast gambling monopoly and to feed its coffers. With little of no resistance from the people the expansion of the government continues and the media continues to be derelict in its duty to inform. We can only hope that New York racing survives this ordeal.

NYRA signal not available on the internet in New York

Albany is blocking the NYRA signal from being broadcasted within New York on the internet on sites like YOUBET or TWINSPIRES. It seems like a move to protect OTB as this forces many people to tune in to the OTB channel or head into a OTB branch to watch local races. Perhaps it is just a misunderstanding in the language of the NYSRWB law. It is absolutely preposterous that we can bet on NYRA races but can not see the feed.


My cohort Tim B. distributed the letter listed below. It is a template so you can inform your state officials of the situation with the NYRA signal. Feel free to cut and paste the letter and forward it to your elected officials. Every horseplayer from New York should hold their elected officials accountable and send a email to their state senator and assemblyman. To make life easy I will post the letter and the links so you can find and write to the elected officials that work for you. New Yorkers pay the highest taxes in the country, demand some value for your hard work. Stop letting the Assembly and Senate get away with corruption while we remain silent.

http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sdloo...search?OpenForm

Hello,

As a horse racing bettor and fan, it is a shame that Section 1003 of the State Pari-Mutuel Wagering Law has not been amended to allow advance deposit wagering organizations like youbet.com, twinspires.com, TVG.com, et. al, to provide live streaming simulcast video of New York tracks. Not all areas of New York State are serviced by an Off-Track Betting corporation (i.e. Oneonta) and those fans who desire to play New York racetracks in those locales lose because they cannot view the races live. Horse Racing is a real-time game-of-chance, and the ability to watch the live broadcast from Aqueduct, Belmont or Saratoga provides bettors important information relevant to making wagers that is not available in print or on websites like DRF.com, NYRA.com, or the various newspapers that cover horse racing. If the language of Section 1003 of the State Pari-Mutuel Wagering Law is amended to include "advance deposit wagering companies" as able to distribute the simulcast signal, it would bring the present law up-to-date and would open simulcasting to all areas of New York State not covered by the regional Off-Track Betting corporations.

Down below is the current law, as written of Section 1003 of the State Pari-Mutuel Wagering Law. Please forward this to other state assemblymen and women so this law gets re-written and better serves the horse racing fans of the Empire State.

Sincerely,


Except as provided herein, the board shall not approve any application to conduct

simulcasting into individual or group residences, homes or other areas

for the purposes of or in connection with pari-mutuel wagering. The

board may approve simulcasting into residences, homes or other areas to

be conducted jointly by one or more regional off-track betting

corporations and one or more of the following: a non-profit racing

association, a thoroughbred racing corporation or association or a

harness racing corporation or association; provided (i) the simulcasting

consists only of those races on which pari-mutuel betting is authorized

by this chapter at one or more simulcast facilities for each of the

contracting off-track betting corporations which shall include wagers

made in accordance with section one thousand sixteen, one thousand

seventeen and one thousand seventeen-a of this chapter; provided further

that the contract provisions or other simulcast arrangements for such

simulcast facility shall be no less favorable than those in effect on

January first, two thousand five; (ii) that each off-track betting

corporation having within its geographic boundaries such residences,

homes or other areas technically capable of receiving the simulcast

signal shall be a contracting party; (iii) the distribution of revenues

shall be subject to contractual agreement of the parties except that

statutory payments to non-contracting parties, if any, may not be

reduced; provided, however, that nothing herein to the contrary shall

prevent a track from televising its races on an irregular basis

primarily for promotional or marketing purposes as found by the board.

For purposes of this paragraph, the provisions of section one thousand

thirteen of this article shall not apply. Any agreement authorizing an

in-home simulcasting experiment commencing prior to May fifteenth,

nineteen hundred ninety-five, may, and all its terms, be extended until

June thirtieth, two thousand eight; provided, however, that any party to

such agreement may elect to terminate such agreement upon conveying

written notice to all other parties of such agreement at least

forty-five days prior to the effective date of the termination, via

registered mail. Any party to an agreement receiving such notice of an

intent to terminate, may request the board to mediate between the

parties new terms and conditions in a replacement agreement between the

parties as will permit continuation of an in-home experiment until June

thirtieth, two thousand eight; and (iv) no in-home simulcasting in the

thoroughbred special betting district shall occur without the approval

of the regional thoroughbred track.

(b) Any agreement authorizing in-home simulcasting pursuant to this

section shall be in writing, and upon written request, a copy shall be

provided to the representative horsemen's group of the racing

association or corporation that is party to said agreement. Such

agreement shall include a categorical statement of new and incremental

expenses directly related and attributable to the conduct of in-home

simulcasting. The representative horsemen's group may, within thirty

days of receiving the agreement, petition the board for a determination

as to the appropriateness and reasonableness of any expenses attributed

by either the racing association or corporation or the off-track betting

corporation.

NYS limiting access to NYRA video it is time to take action

As you may have noticed NYRA video is not available on twinspires.com or HRTV as promised. If you read the law it is worded to protect OTB by stating that racing can only be shown at the tracks or at a OTB. No provision in section 1003 of the NY racing law deals with internet ADW's. This law can be changed, it may take a little while as the law protects OTB corruption but it can be changed if the public places pressure on their elected officials. I urge everybody in New York to write their state Assemblyman and State Senator. It is time that horseplayers exercise their responsibility as citizens in a democracy and place some pressure on their elected officials. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, let us make some noise.

Here are the links to the New York state senators and assembly, they make it easy to contact your reps;

http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sdlookup.nsf/Public_search?OpenForm

Here is my letter if you do not want to reinvent the wheel and type your own;




Hello,

My message today is regarding the NYRA horse racing franchise. The law in question is called section 1003 regarding simulcasting of races. The law allows wagering providers to offer wagering on New York races but does not allow these wagering companies to offer video.

20 billion dollars was wagered on races last year and the most popular of those racing signals was the New York NYRA signal. While the growth of wagering is somewhat stagnant the internet advance deposit wagering segment of the industry has experienced explosive growth. By limiting access to video of New York racing, New York state is reducing the appeal of the NYRA signal in the completive simulcast market. People do not want to bet on races they can not watch. Money will flow to other states where there is no such law limiting broadcasting of races.

Players that bet on these races want to watch them. Why does section 1003 limit broadcasting of races? Why would the state reduce its intake of taxes and impede a New York business in a competitive market? Much of the wagering occurs with Advance Deposit Wagering companies which offer legal wagering and video over the internet. An example is twinspires.com. Currently video is not available for New York NYRA races but is available for every other track in the US. . I will quote the pertinent portion of the law below.

"The board may approve simulcasting into residences, homes or other areas to
be conducted jointly by one or more regional off-track betting
corporations and one or more of the following: a non-profit racing
association, a thoroughbred racing corporation or association or a
harness racing corporation or association;

Is this a new low point?

In a game where imminent demise supposedly looms like vultures circling a carcass, things took a drastic turn for the worse across the country. It seems like the vultures are getting ready to touch down. Like a church choir repeating in perfect harmony there was one line from the major racing centers of New York, Kentucky, Florida and California, bad news.

The biggest news this weekend is out of California, where the all weather track is great for all weather racing as long as the weather is dry and sunny. Anyway you look at it this is going to cost California racing millions of dollars. If they move the meet to Hollywood or only run in dry Santa Anita this is going to cost Magna dearly. The turf course at Hollywood is currently dormant so a move to Hollywood would be a less than perfect solution to an embarrassing problem. It is going to take months to sort this out. After losing millions on the meet, the track will then have to be dug up and rebuilt from scratch. Does Santa Anita stick with Cushion track or go with Dickensons Tapeta which has found success in No-Cal? If that wasn't bad enough the Santa Anita Breeders Cup is looming in 9 months.

Gulfstream kicked off its meet this week to smaller than promised purses, reduced attendance and poor reviews of the facilities. When attendance dives from 21K to 5K is less than 3 years there is a problem. Look for a PowerCap review of the facility sometime this month as I finally check this place out for myself.

Even Kentucky the Thoroughbred breeding capital of North America was not spared the bad news. After gains fueled by the installation of Poly-track, ADW related issues have caused the Turfway handle to plummet 22%. Look for purses to be slashed soon in the blue grass.

New York may have the biggest issues of all. Intense corruption, mind boggling ineptitude and the status quo is the trifecta bet of the year when considering the future of New York racing. The situation is so mixed up that the politicians can not even decide on the who what where of how to screw the game. The latest word is that TVG can show the races in New York but you can not bet on them with TVG. Conversely you can bet with HRTV's betting service but can not watch the races on the HRTV network or internet. This is the best NYS can come up with? Nothing makes sense and the details are hidden in the shadows. There is no clear line on who are the hero's, who are the goats and who is working for which interest. A long thread at paceadvantage covers it all

In six years of following the game closely, 07JAN08 clearly marks a low point.

NYSRWB Corruption or Ineptitude part III

A new DRF article outlines some of the shadowy behind the scenes action that prevented the NYRA signal from being seen this week. The latest development from Albany and the NYSRWB will not let anybody watch NYRA races. HRTV, Xpressbet and Twinspires have been declined from the NYRA video feed. Twinspires and xpressbet customers can wager on the race but not watch. This is a tough one to figure out. I am not sure if this is NYSRWB corruption or ineppitude.

Is this some sort of corrupt plan designed to keep NYRA in bankruptcy by keeping the signal in check and not allowing people to watch the races? Or is it a form of corruption where the OTB internet sites are protected from competition? OTB does not offer video so they are at a competitive disadvantage. But if the NYSRWB does not let anybody watch the races on-line the field is leveled.

Or maybe it is just complete ineptitude on the NYSRWBs behalf. Maybe the staffers at the NYSRWB are educationally challenged hacks that work in a bureaucracy and would not know a trifecta from a trip note.

NYSRWB corruption scorecard part II

There was new developments on the NYRA franchise today. First it looks like the NYSRWB approved wagering for the Bruno connected Tracknet ADW's Twinspires and Xpressbet. TVG and others still have no approval and have been left out in the cold. However video was specifically banned, the only place you can watch the Aqueduct races are on OTB channels. So the NYSRWB decided in all their wisdom to rule betty but no looky. Lets add to our corruption/ineptitude scorecard.

Todays NYSRWB actions highlight another corrupt aspect of the NYSRWB. NYRA wants to offer free video on its website but the NYSRWB specifically restricts NYRA from having live video on the website. Why would the NYSRWB want less people to watch and bet on NYRA races and reduce handle and taxes? Because the NYSRWB wants the people to watch and bet with OTB which means more political patronage jobs and more surcharges on wagers. NYSRWB is the OTB cash cow protector.

9) NYSWRB blocks video of NYRA from internet and from racing channels to protect OTB.- Ruled as primarily corruption but some ineptitude as well was needed to come to this decision on their part.

NYS corruption scorecard

How many ways has the state government compromised NYRA racing? Is it corruption or ineptitude? Why hasn't the media picked up on this story? The VLT's were approved in 2001 for Aqueduct, why haven't they opened yet?

Lets get a scorecard on the state and see if we are dealing with a bumbler or a schemer. With all of these questions someone should be finding the answers.

1) Pataki blocks slots at NYRA for 3 years. -Would not give final approval for unknown reasons- corruption

2) Minor teller/waiter scandals in 2004-2006 initiated by Spitzer forever cloud NYRA as a corrupt organization in media. -both scandals are pure media designed attention getting fiascoes- corruption

3) Multiple franchise racing approval processes started, finished, ignored and started again - ineptitude

4) OTB continues to leach off the racing industry with bloated staff and political patronage jobs- nothing is done- corruption

5) NYRA Internet wagering delayed for years with red tape, while out of state ADW's allowed to operate and siphon money out of the state- ineptitude

6) Franchise deadline passes with no action-ineptitude

7) Deals signed by NYRA but not rubber stamped by NYSRWB causing more lost revenue- ineptitude

8)NYRA can not offer small perks like free admission for account holders after NYSRWB orders that everyone must pay to enter track- ineptitude

It is clear we are dealing with both corruption and ineptitude. In a state like New York where there is so much wealth and so many educated taxpayers it is surprising that the government is such a third rate operation. The future looks grim in New York and it looks like we are on the crest of a tremendous downward spiral. If the way NY governs racing is a indicator on how it governs the State as a whole it looks like we are cycling back towards the economic and social downtrend of the 1970's and 1980's.