Opinion

Cashing out a bad bet

Gov. Cuomo may soon be sending the New York Racing Association off to the glue factory — and not a moment too soon.

Two top NYRA officials were fired this month for allegedly shortchanging bettors to the tune of $8.5 million.

It didn’t end there: State officials say NYRA’s board then withheld documents from the state’s Inspector General and promoted two officials to replace the disgraced executives — in violation of “regulatory standards and NYRA’s own by-laws.”

Little wonder Cuomo has threatened to pack NYRA’s board with his own appointees and revoke its franchise at New York’s racetracks.

He’s also ordered the state to withhold NYRA’s cut from video slot machines at the Aqueduct racino.

“Unless NYRA immediately starts to act in the best interests of racing and the taxpayers of this state,” warned Bob Megna — the state budget director, who chairs NYRA’s Franchise Oversight Board — the state will give the franchise to a “qualified, ethical and responsible steward for horse racing.”

In truth, there’s no other choice.

NYRA is institutionally rotten; the best bet is to simply abolish the body entirely.

State investigators found that NYRA executives knew full well that bettors were being overcharged for 15 months, but did nothing to stop it — and then tried to cover up their tracks.

Dishonesty and graft are nothing new: NYRA ex-President Charles Hayward sued to keep the books closed last year while raising his own salary to $473,800 — even as NYRA lost $11.6 million.

And the taint runs from top to bottom. Federal investigators indicted NYRA on fraud and conspiracy charges in 2003, and found that “corruption pervaded the culture of the organization.”

Prosecutors said they did “everything we [could] to punish NYRA short of dissolving it.” If only they had the power.

NYRA filed for bankruptcy and took a $105 million bailout from New York in 2008. And though it’s finally set to record its first profitable year in more than a decade, the association has rewarded taxpayer beneficence by skimming the pot.

Horse racing and horse breeding are a small but important piece of Upstate’s fragile economy. Rescuing the racetracks from NYRA’s decades-long mismanagement would be a blessing.

So it’s good news that Cuomo’s stirring things up in Albany now. But talk is one thing; a fix needs to come before this legislative session ends in June.