NEW YORK (WCBS 880/AP) -- The odds of off-track betting's suvival seem to be getting longer by the minute. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is threatening to shut down the OTB corporation if the state doesn't quit helping itself to all the profits and then some.
'So much so that we would have to kick money in from the city treasury to satisfy the state's demands, no matter how successful OTB is, and I've said we're just not going to do that,' said Mayor Bloomberg.
The Mayor says the city is not going to subsidize [NY1] the horseracing industry.
According to the New York City Off-Track Betting Corp., OTB gamblers place an average of 1.6 million wagers per day at its 60-plus branches, totaling more than $1 billion in bets per year.
The organization makes a profit, but is mandated by law to hand over so much of its money to the state that the venture is no longer worth supporting, especially when the city is already facing potential fiscal problems.
Bloomberg says if Albany doesn't fix the problem, OTB will be closed by June.
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