Tag: OTB

Jan 16

2024

Double standard involving OTB board

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For more than a decade, the state Gaming Commission allowed political party leaders — all Republicans or Conservatives — to serve on the board of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. in violation of state law, Investigative Post has found. Then came Jennifer Hibit.  Following major reforms by state lawmakers, County Executive Mark Poloncarz last June appointed the Democratic insider to the OTB board. But late last year, the Gaming Commission gave Hibit a choice: Resign from her leadership position in the Erie County Democratic Committee or leave the OTB board. She left OTB.  Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, a Democrat appointed by Buffalo[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Jan 11

2024

No follow up to OTB ticket scandal

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In the fall of 2021, state auditors criticized representatives of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. for improperly helping themselves to an estimated $121,000 in tickets for professional sports games, concerts and other shows, as well as thousands of dollars in food and drinks they consumed while taking in the action.   More than two years later, a spokesperson for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli concedes their office doesn’t know whether OTB officials have taken any action on one of the audit’s main recommendations: identify individuals who improperly received tickets and seek reimbursement.  “We were not informed if WROTB sought and received reimbursements,”[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Dec 4

2023

Poloncarz swaps one potential OTB critic for another

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A recently-appointed director of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.— expected to be a watchdog over the embattled gambling agency — has resigned.  State law prohibits public and political party officials from holding a license necessary to serve on the governing board of off-track betting corporations. That’s the law that prompted Jennifer Hibit — secretary of the Erie County Democratic Committee — to resign Monday from her position as Erie County’s representative on the board of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., based in Batavia.  It’s unclear if the law is being applied uniformly.  Former OTB Board Chairman Richard Bianchi,[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Oct 26

2023

OTB lurches toward ‘new era’

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The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is entering a “new era,” its new board chair has claimed, a shift that could see the public gambling agency increase transparency and institute reforms. The OTB board of directors meeting Thursday marked the first time the group had met since state lawmakers in May fired the old board, ordered the 17 counties and cities that own the agency to appoint a new one, and instituted weighted voting, throwing control to densely populated, Democratically-controlled Erie and Monroe counties, along with Buffalo and Rochester. Those reforms came after more than four years of lawsuits, investigations[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Oct 19

2023

OTB shells out millions for lawyers and lobbyists

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The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has shelled out nearly $2.2 million for an army of 19 law firms and lobbyists over the past five years in an effort to fend off investigators, lawmakers and plaintiffs. The spending has eaten into the profits sent to the 17 counties and cities that own the public gambling agency, including Erie, Niagara and Monroe counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester. From 2019, when expenses started to take off, through last year, spending on lawyers and lobbyists cut OTB’s revenue sharing to municipalities by 10 percent. While some spending could be expected,[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Sep 25

2023

Appellate court reinstates OTB ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit

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A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court’s decision and reinstated a lawsuit filed by a former executive of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. who claimed he was fired after he agreed to cooperate with state and federal investigators who were examining the inner-workings of the organization.  In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals determined that U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny erred in his October decision to dismiss as untimely the lawsuit filed by former OTB Chief Operating Officer Michael Nolan. In his earlier ruling, Skretny determined that Nolan’s claims of First Amendment[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Sep 4

2023

OTB chief snubs Erie County comptroller

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Last week, the president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting instructed three of his top executives to ignore inquiries from the Erie County comptroller. Erie County is one of the 17 municipalities that own OTB, an agency beset by allegations that it has misused public money. Since last summer, Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick has made numerous inquiries into the agency’s financial practices, including its provision of expensive health-care coverage to board members, its practice of doling out tickets to sporting events and concerts to friends and family, and the particulars of the development of a new hotel at[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Aug 30

2023

Contracts for OTB executives a first

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Six days before being ousted this spring by the state legislature, Western Regional Off-Track Betting’s board of directors voted to give multi-year contracts to 18 of the agency’s top executives. News outlets, including Investigative Post, first reported that the contracts for CEO Henry Wojtaszek and his lieutenants were “extensions” of existing agreements. But they were not extensions, according to OTB’s response to a Freedom of Information request filed by Investigative Post in July, seeking copies of the executives’ previous contracts.  OTB said it had no previous contracts to provide. And a former OTB chief operating officer — who is suing[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post