Off-Track Betting’s Defunct Rescue Plan Was a Winner for Consultants

(NYT) — The New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation — burdened by its unique blend of politics, bureaucracy and horse racing interests — has long excelled at finding new ways to burn through the millions of dollars that pour under its tellers’ windows each year.

And even with the parlors on their deathbeds, the last year has been no exception.

Meyer S. Frucher, the trusted hand Gov. David A. Paterson persuaded last year to develop a plan to save OTB, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants. But Mr. Paterson’s office refused to embrace a key aspect of the plan that Mr. Frucher and his consultants had devised, and Mr. Frucher, known as Sandy, who had worked free, abandoned the effort and left as chairman in June.

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