New York City OTB President Resigns: Replacement to make 10 times as much salary!

[andymays]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/57797/new-york-city-otb-president-resigns

Excerpt:

The financially struggling New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. has accepted the resignation of its long-time president, and quickly filled his job with a replacement making nearly 10 times as much.

Excerpt:

But the salary given to his replacement, Greg Rayburn, was sharply criticized by board member Steve Newman. The board member said Rayburn will make $125,000 a month – which he said is about equal to six weeks of salary made by Casey. Newman called the payment a concern for an OTB in financial trouble--it is still operating under federal bankruptcy reorganization--and sought to put a two-month window on Rayburn’s hiring to give time for the board to re-consider the matter.

[OTM Al]

This makes no sense. First they say he's making 10 times as much and then they say his monthly salary is equal to 6 weeks salary of the other guy. Its a lot of money either way....

[garyscpa]

Smart move. They just added $1 million to overhead.:D

[Igeteven]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/57797/new-york-city-otb-president-resigns

Excerpt:

The financially struggling New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. has accepted the resignation of its long-time president, and quickly filled his job with a replacement making nearly 10 times as much.

Excerpt:

But the salary given to his replacement, Greg Rayburn, was sharply criticized by board member Steve Newman. The board member said Rayburn will make $125,000 a month – which he said is about equal to six weeks of salary made by Casey. Newman called the payment a concern for an OTB in financial trouble--it is still operating under federal bankruptcy reorganization--and sought to put a two-month window on Rayburn’s hiring to give time for the board to re-consider the matter.

Why not Andy, in horse racing it is, who you know, more then what you know

Welcome to America

[therussmeister]

This makes no sense. First they say he's making 10 times as much and then they say his monthly salary is equal to 6 weeks salary of the other guy. Its a lot of money either way....
Maybe they were paying the other guy 60 weeks a year.

[thespaah]

This is precisely why NYC OTB needs to be imploded and rebuilt. Only the next time it should be privately operated.

[Stillriledup]

If he's 11 times better, they're getting value.

[Rico8812]

Does this make him the highest paid executive in the racing industry? Have to think so. Typical NY State.

[Robert Goren]

If he's 11 times better, they're getting value.That won't be hard. I use to have a cat who could have done a better job than the old guy.

[shouldacoulda]

Well doesn't this just take the cake. The state is trying to furlough workers to meet budget shortfalls. We have unemployment out the yingyang. We just had to bail out these leaches and they go and give the replacement a raise like this is just beyond comprehension. How did government jobs get to be better paying than the private counterparts that support them. This is still a state governed entity. This is absolutely ludicrous. Why isn't Gov Patterson speaking out against this? He didn't have a problem trying to cut wages for the peon state workers. Let me guess, he probably doesn't even have to contribute to his medical benefits either. :bang:

[point given]

Lots of wasted time and money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/nyregion/08otb.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

[Rico8812]

You gotta feel bad for NYRA. NY State (Spitzer) spent 2 years and $3 million investigating them and the best they could come up with was a handfull of mutuel clerks betting out of their box and running small time tax scams. The mutuels boss even did jail time i believe for allowing it to happen. And NYRA has been in the shitter ever since.

Now compare them to NYCOTB. They handle WAAAAAY more than ANY racing entity in the country, and not only can they not turn a profit, they basically SCAMMED MILLIONS of dollars from the racing industry and taxpayers of NY.

If the NYRA Mutuel boss had to go to jail, these ****in guys should be given 15-20 upstate.

[Bruddah]

Gawd you gotta luv it! Tony and the Boys know how to milk a dying cow. Dose boys are real milk skimmers.

[andymays]

Lack of AC blamed for heat-related illness of workers at Saratoga Race Course

http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2010/07/09/news/doc4c36795144387768659134.txt

Excerpt:

The New York breeding industry has already suffered immeasurable damage because of the state’s failure to get the facility open. Leading farms have closed and many horses have left for other states, where gaming-fueled purses and breeders award programs are more lucrative.

NYRA itself threatened to stop racing this summer if the state didn’t come through with a recent $25 million loan. At present, bankrupt New York City Off Track Betting is shortchanging NYRA nearly $2 million per month, and owes NYRA more than $20 million. Hayward said 80 percent of its loan will be exhausted by Jan. 1 unless OTB’s financial situation gets turned around soon.

"If OTB can get its finances in line and pay us what they owe us, that money’s going to go a whole lot longer," he said.

[thespaah]

Lack of AC blamed for heat-related illness of workers at Saratoga Race Course

http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2010/07/09/news/doc4c36795144387768659134.txt

Excerpt:

The New York breeding industry has already suffered immeasurable damage because of the state’s failure to get the facility open. Leading farms have closed and many horses have left for other states, where gaming-fueled purses and breeders award programs are more lucrative.

NYRA itself threatened to stop racing this summer if the state didn’t come through with a recent $25 million loan. At present, bankrupt New York City Off Track Betting is shortchanging NYRA nearly $2 million per month, and owes NYRA more than $20 million. Hayward said 80 percent of its loan will be exhausted by Jan. 1 unless OTB’s financial situation gets turned around soon.

"If OTB can get its finances in line and pay us what they owe us, that money’s going to go a whole lot longer," he said.
OTB has fatal problems. The money taken in is going somewhere. I believe the problems start in Albany. The political power structure is responsible for placing those currently in charge of OTB.
For the money to simply disappear like a fart in the wind indicates massive corruption and theft.
OTB should be shut down and transformed into a privately run enterprise free of poltical hacks, labor unions and other corrupt influences.

[andymays]

High Salary of NYCOTB President Challenged | BloodHorse.com

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/57832/high-salary-of-nycotb-president-challenged

Excerpt:

The high-priced salary given to the new president of New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. is illegal, two state legislators say, and should be investigated by an oversight agency.

“What they’re doing is totally out of bounds,” Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, chairman of the Assembly racing committee, said of NYCOTB’s hiring of Greg Rayburn for $125,000 a month. The corporation is in Chapter 9 federal bankruptcy reorganization protection and has been unable to pay its bills to various industry stakeholders.

[classhandicapper]

Apparently there may be a past relationship (conflict of interest?) between the new CEO of NYCOTB (Greg Rayburn) and NYRA with the goal of NYRA taking over the lucrative parts of NYC OTB.

Rayburn denies this:

"Rayburn worked with Brian Rosen, NYRA's bankruptcy lawyer -- which is either a potential conflict or something that presents the appearance of one, Newman said. NYCOTB is NYRA's biggest business partner and owes the association more than $17 million. At the same time, NYRA has desires on some of the OTB's core assets -- including the highly valuable Internet and telephone betting units -- and Rayburn's plan for the OTB could include mergers or sell-offs.

Newman wonders if NYRA had a hand in Rayburn's candidacy. NYRA has refused to answer questions about Rayburn, although it has been publicly supportive of his hiring. Rosen did not return a call. "In government, it's important to assure the public of the fairness of the process and the independence of its officials," said Newman. OTB board veteran David Cornstein said Rayburn is getting an exorbitant salary and was quickly hired without the normal due diligence. He promised to fight any proposal to turn over some of the business to NYRA ("the most incompetent entity I have ever run into in business").


http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=951858&category=ODATO&BCCode&newsdate=7%2F18%2F2010

[classhandicapper]

I just wanted to point this out also because of the obvious misinformation ("lies") about whether NYC OTB is in fact losing money. It is after these required massive contributions to both the industry and government that OTB is failing to keep up with rising costs and falling betting handle throughout the industry.



"The new $125,000-a-month president of the Off-Track Betting Corp. pledged yesterday to have a plan in place within 30 days to rescue the bankrupt operation.

"I view this as a very short-term effort," declared Greg Rayburn, a restructuring specialist tapped a week ago by Gov. Paterson in a last-ditch effort to revive the city's fading legalized bookie.

Although Rayburn said he was not ruling out anything at this stage -- including liquidation -- he pointed out that OTB contributed $550 million to the horse-racing industry and $200 million to state and local governments since 2004."

[classhandicapper]

One last thing.

NYC OTB did NOT hire this guy Rayburn. OTB is against the hiring. In all probability this is part of a corrupt NYRA/Patterson effort to get the prime OTB assets it wants and stick "whoever" with the shit and long term liabilities.

"This is all happening since Gov. David Paterson installed his chief deputy, Larry Schwartz, as chairman of the bankrupt NYCOTB. Schwartz abruptly brought in Rayburn as the new president this month. Board members are steaming upon learning of Rayburn's past, including his business relationship with NYRA's bankruptcy lawyer and his former leadership of a company investigated by federal securities regulators."

[kenwoodall2]

Hard to imaginr why racing is down in many places with messed up running of racing and price gouging. Also. the story Bloodhorse writers did not bother to edit and correct an obvious error somewhere, regardless of the $$$ source, points up the need for my Thoroughbred Racing International Promotions (TRIP).