By FREDRIC U. DICKER and DAVID SEIFMAN
June 12, 2008
ALBANY - The 1,500 New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. workers facing dismissal Sunday got some last-minute good news yesterday as a deal turning the money-losing entity over to the state appeared to be close.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, emerging from an early-evening closed-door meeting with Gov. Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, said an OTB deal under which the state could operate the city's OTB parlors was in sight.
"I think there's a lot of progress . . . I think we can go forward," Silver (D-Manhattan) told The Post.
"I'm fairly confident that before the end of the week, we will do it," Silver continued, saying a deal could also include a guarantee of a minimum amount of OTB profits to the city.
Silver, who has repeatedly clashed with Mayor Bloomberg, accused the mayor of improperly using the 1,500 workers as "hostages" in order to force a state takeover.
Meanwhile, a source close to Paterson confirmed that "real progress" had been made on an OTB deal, but noted that a final agreement has yet to be reached.
