Pataki Proposes Changes in VLT Plan as Lure to Tracks

• Email
• Print
• Tweet

New York Governor George Pataki has proposed changes his administration says will convince racetracks to begin offering video lottery terminals.

The changes, contained in Pataki's proposed 2003 budget, will affect operating hours and the level of proceeds tracks will have to share with breeding and purse funds.

The Pataki budget plan also calls for other sweeping changes to the state's parimutuel laws, including authorizing out-of-state nighttime Thoroughbred simulcasting at the state's OTB parlors. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been pushing that plan to help raise money for his city budget through the NYCOTB. In addition, the Pataki plan calls for a .5 percent fee on the industry to support on-site race judges, stewards, drug testing and the oversight of tracks by the state Racing and Wagering Board.

Details were not immediately available, but the measure also would permit tracks to set takeout levels individually within prescribed ranges.

Stalled for a year by tracks' insistence that the VLT program is a money-loser for them, Pataki proposed reducing the amount tracks will be required to share with purses from 35 percent in the first year and 45 percent in subsequent years to zero percent in the first two years of the program. Over the next 10 years, the share to purses would rise to 20 percent.

Moreover, the plan would cut the share from tracks to breeding funds from 5 percent to zero in the first two years; the share would rise over the next 10 years to 5 percent.

The plan would increase the hours of operation for the VLTs from 12 hours per day to 126 hours per week – or the equivalent of 18 hours per day. Tracks would choose which hours to operate, though no VLTs could operate between 2 a.m. and noon on Sundays.

The governor's budget also eliminates the December 31, 2007 sunset provision in the existing VLT law, making it a permanent program.

"This legislation addresses the concerns raised by the tracks,'' according to memo from the Pataki administration accompanying the proposal.

The governor's proposal still needs legislative approval, which could be months away since the VLT proposal is wrapped up into his overall budget plan.

Meanwhile, though, the Pataki budget also calls for a new 0.5 percent fee on racetrack wagering, which would bring the state $16 million a year.

• Email
• Print
• Tweet