NYC betting parlors
 

I remember visiting Manhattan in the late 80’s and 90’s with my uncle and there were all these walk in OTB parlors . Read online the operation went bankrupt. So is there not even one place in Manhattan for a person to make a bet ? I’ve researched and can’t find anything as of yet. BTW I often wondered if the OTB episode in Seinfeld was actually filmed at a real location.

They were not the cleanest places in the world, but none was ever as grimy as that Seinfeld one in my experiences in Staten Island, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The exterior shot was a real location.

As far as I know - no legal watch and wager locations currently exist in NYC (other than Aqueduct simulcast),

I visited one once in Manhattan back in mid 90’s and it was exactly how Seinfeld episode depicted it. Grimy and filled with seedy people lol. Anyway I’m super surprised there is not one location available to place a bet. Seems weird. I also remember around that time that Connecticut had their own wagering pools for New York racing which I also thought was weird. There was some races where the pay offs were so far off that it would have lead anyone to believe there was shenanigans going on.

I would rarely even visit one of those dumps. The payoff was less than the payoff at the track. You had bet the horses by letter A and so on instead of by horse number. One in a blue moon I would sit in the park behind the main NYC library and catch some rays and study the DRF (also checking out the pretty ladies around the park) and then head across the street and place my bets at the OTB there.

There was a decent period of time in the 70's up until around the early '80s or so when sitting in Bryant Park before going to the OTB would have been going from fire to frying pan. Wasn't always the nice spot it is today.

The closest places to New York City where you can bet the ponies are:
Аqueduct Racetrack
Belmont Park
The Meadowlands (closest to Manhattan)
Nassau County OTB
Yonkers Raceway