UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
Could the Aqueduct VLT selection process be determined unconstitutional after it’s all said and done? That’s what the insensitively headlined article in the New York Post suggests after looking into the New York state Constitution.
Currently the process includes the Governor, the Senate president and the Assembly speaker but that goes in direct conflict with the state Constitution. In matters of gambling, it forbids such activities unless ‘authorized and prescribed by the Legislature’.
Will this be another chapter in a long, confusing and inept VLT selection process? Seeing this unfold so far, it seems anything is possible in New York…
Read it at the New York Post
Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think
- Bradford Cummings
Tags: aqueduct, bradford cummings, New York Constituition, new york post, Paulick Report, VLT
April 5th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Since
the State of NY is heavily Unionized, when are said Unions going to get behind NYRA and support this thing. Let a major Co like GE or Ford try to leave this State and the people in Frankfort would throw Millions at them to keep them…same in NY? When is it going to happen here or NY? After the business is gone? So they can say well the people didn’t want it anyway? Where were those people Friday when there was a record crowd at Keeneland?
SOS with State Governments
April 5th, 2010 at 8:54 am
The only good part of this story is that something has to happen before Saratoga ends, or there might not be a Belmont fall meeting.
Before that is NYC OTB, which has an April 11 shutdown date.
April 5th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Not sure I agree that this is unconstitutional. As the spokesperson for the VLT Coalition that successfully got the legislature to approve VLTs at racetracks, there is no new ground being broken constitutionally. VLTs are legal since they fall under the umbrella of the existing constitutional amendment that enabled the Lottery which was passed by the entire legislature. VLT legislation in 2001 was passed by the legislature. The Aqueduct contract is to seek a vendor to operate what has already been ruled constitutional.
April 5th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Bill T,
If NYC OTB does in fact shutdown, I am not sure there will be a Saratoga meet this year.
April 5th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Agree with Ray that a complete cessation of NYC OTB on April 11 would be a disaster that could shut things down at NYRA sooner than anticipated — as could a temporary “fix” for OTB that suspended its payments to NYRA and the horsemen. If that’s the fix that the legislature, in its infinite stupidity, adopts, then NYRA should just cut off the signal to NYC OTB and try to capture those customers on its own phone and internet wagering platforms.
I also agree with Dick Powell on the constitutionality issue, though a lawsuit by a disappointed bidder, even if ultimately unsuccessful, would certainly slow things down even more, if that’s possible. Mr. Fisch’s comments, picked up by the ever-unreliable Post, reflect the general ignorance in Albany about racing.