OLEAN, N.Y. — Although it closed more than 2 1/2 months ago, the Off-Track Betting sign and OTB logo are still visible above the OTB parlor in Delaware Park Centre.
In 42 years of operation in Cattaraugus County, Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. returned more than $4.7 million to the county on an initial investment of $19,182 by the county Legislature in 1974.
In addition to the county’s share of the OTB revenues, employees received an estimated $6 million or more in wages over four decades.
In 2015, however, full- and part-time employees cost OTB between $90,000 and $100,000. When it closed in November, there was one full-time employee.
At one time, those returns totaled nearly $200,000 a year. The county, along with 10 other Western New York counties, received a share of the OTB profits based on population, according to Richard Haberer of Franklinville, the county’s OTB representative.
Statewide, OTB’s “handle” declined 18.7 percent from $816.9 million in 2009 to $664.3 million in 2013.
A September 2015 report from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli recommended OTB boards close unprofitable branches and convert them to remote wagering locations with E-Z Bet.
OTB has also begun accepting online bets on horse races at bataviabets.com.
The latest returns to the county, about $80,000 in 2015, mirrored the downturn in OTB’s “handle” over the years
The Olean OTB site lost $90,000 in 2014 and $78,000 in 2015. While 2016 losses weren’t posted, Olean was looking at an estimated loss of $60,000 in 2017, said Haberer, a former New York state trooper and county legislator.
Haberer, who has been the county’s representative to the OTB board of directors for 12 years, said the only votes against closing the Olean branch were his and the representative from Niagara County, where another branch was closed last year.
“I didn’t want the county to lose the surcharge or have our employees laid off,” Haberer said as his reason for opposing the closing. “We had already cut hours,” he said. “We were down to one full-time employe when we closed.”
In 2015, the Olean OTB site handled $727,600 in bets. That is down sharply from the $2,295,000 bet there in 1993.
“We have an aging population” that are not following horse races as residents did in the past, Haberer said. “The big thing was the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Preakness,” he said. “We’d have to bring in extra help on those days.”
Another nail in the coffin for the Olean OTB were the opening of Native American casinos in Salamanca and at Oil Springs in Cuba, he said. “There’s more draw on the gaming money. The horse-playing population isn’t what it used to be.”
Haberer said, “It’s the end of an era in Olean. It’s kind of sad. The Olean OTB site doubled in size in 1985, and later added smoke-handling equipment to get a waiver to the smoking ban when the state’s Clean Indoor Act was enacted.
Despite the loss of the Olean parlor, the county has continued to receive its share of the profits, Haberer said. The county will lose its surcharge on Olean bets, but the lower overhead in closings last year of the Olean branch and one in Niagara County will mean the county probably won’t lose much, he added.
OTB marketing employees are looking for sites in Cattaraugus County for free-standing E-Z Bet sites in taverns and restaurants, Haberer said. One opened briefly last year in Balloons Restaurant in Ellicottville. The sites have monitors to view simulcast horse races and a betting machine. The host site also gets a share of the bets placed.
“There are some very successful ones (E-Z Bet sites) in Erie and Niagara counties and in Monroe County,” Haberer said.
He added the “big money these days” is at Batavia Downs Gaming, which Cattaraugus County receives a share of as one of the original 11 investor counties.
“Over the long haul, it’s been a good investment,” said County Legislator James J. Snyder, R-Olean. He was on the County Legislature in 1974 when OTB was created. “The casinos and the Lottery scratch-offs hurt us,” Snyder said. “So did changing demographics.”
Snyder added: “State gambling was rather new at that time, but it wasn’t very controversial in this county. It was a good investment. We’re still part-owners. We still have our stock in the corporation.”
