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4.18.04 Gambling on Mutually Assured Destruction

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports today that Western Regional Off-Track Betting (OTB) lost nearly $4 million last year after buying out a failing racetrack. To get out of their jam they plan to install $7.7 million of video lottery terminals. OTB representative "Carney said the company has lost millions of dollars in the past few months because of gambling competition and they feel adding VLTs could bring back the crowds."

The logic escapes me. Gambling is the cure-all for everything these days, esp. in upstate NY. So... if these state-regulated private gambling corporations are losing money because there are too many of them (along with the Indian casinos), they beef themselves up with even more gambling machines. This whole legalized gambling thing was supposed to raise tax money for NYS and the counties and now they are simply competing themselves into debt. Pretty soon they'll be asking for a bailout.

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