US News

CRACKING WHIP ON OWE-TB

ONE year after Mayor Bloomberg turned the Off-Track Betting Corp. over to the state, the city’s only legal bookie is in worse shape than ever with a growing pile of debts that now exceed $30 million.

Until last week, one of the creditors was the city itself.

Sources said OTB failed to make a $3.25 million payment due last September as part of a deal struck in June 2008 that gave the betting parlors to the state and allowed horse races to continue airing on the city’s cable TV channels.

A partial payment of $812,500 came in December.

Six months later, with no other checks in the mail, impatient city officials decided to play hardball.

“We threatened to pull the [TV] signal,” said an administration source.

That did the trick.

OTB on Tuesday turned over another $2.8 million, which included interest and an installment on future payments.

“We told them, ‘You’re a government, we’re a government. You’re going to get paid,’ ” recalled an OTB source. “It wasn’t worth getting into a fight. We paid them. There are bigger issues.”

Working under state rules that require it to pay out more than it takes in after operating expenses, OTB has stayed afloat for about five years by delaying payments.

It now owes between $30 million and $50 million to the New York Racing Association, as well as Yonkers and Monticello racetracks.

“Structurally, the place is bankrupt,” declared the OTB source. “There’s a negative cash flow of $600,000 to $800,000 a month.”

Newly appointed OTB chairman Sandy Frucher told The Post the state has developed a series of options for solving the crisis and he intends to make recommendations to Gov. Paterson within a week or so.

david.seifman@nypost.com