ALBANY — The state Senate last night voted to close the bankrupt New York City Off Tracking Betting Corp., narrowly refusing to approve a bailout plan that would have saved the jobs of 800 workers.
“We’re out of money, we’re out of cash, we’re out of business,” OTB Chairman Larry Schwartz, Gov. Paterson’s top aide, somberly declared last night.
Schwartz said all OTB parlors would close at midnight and would not reopen today, although a handful of branches are expected to remain open to cash existing winning bets.
He said OTB’s closing after 40 years would produce “chaos” throughout the racing world and endanger its economic future. It could also lead to the closing of several tracks, including Monticello Raceway.
Asked if there was anything Paterson or the legislative leaders could do to reopen OTB, Schwartz grimly responded, “If it’s not impossible, it’s near impossible.”
The dramatic shutdown will leave the cash-starved state holding $600 million in OTB’s liabilities for pensions and other debts, according to Schwartz.
The end of the off-track monopoly, long a dumping ground for political hires, came in a partisan, 29-21 vote that fell three votes shy of the number needed to approve Paterson’s plan.
It would have salvaged some OTB operations and turn others, such as the online and phone betting business, over to the New York Racing Association.
Nearly every Democrat present supported the measure.
But while Democrats are in the majority, several were absent, including Senate President Malcolm Smith of Queens, on a junket in China, Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, who was on trial for allegedly attacking a Post photographer, and lame-duck Pedro Espada of The Bronx.
All but two Republicans voted against the measure.
Workers at an OTB parlor on West 48th Street in Manhattan were bereft.
“I don’t think it was a fair vote,” said manager Sabrina Butler, 45, of The Bronx. “I’m too young to retire.”
Last night, bettors were singing the blues as they swigged beers and placed final wages in the OTB parlor and bar on Seventh Avenue near Penn Station.
“When you come here to bet, you don’t have to look over your shoulder,” lamented a gambler who declined to be named.
With Sergey Kadinsky and Wilson Dizard