NYC Off-Track Betting Fans Weigh Odds of Closing

At the Chinatown Off-Track Betting facility on Lafayette Street in Manhattan gamblers crowd the center of an upstairs betting room and stare up at a T.V.

George, a middle-aged immigrant from Jamaica, is looking down at a crumpled NY Post horse racing column. “I should have trusted myself,” he says. “I would have picked a trifecta.” Sure enough, he had circled on his newspaper which horses would come in first, second and third. But he had not followed his gut when betting.

An hour later, George found me to say he had won over $700 after correctly predicting the outcome of two other races. “You brought me good luck,” he said.

Down the street at City Hall, OTB employee Mike Murphy was searching for some good luck on Sunday too. He and 1,500 other workers are set to be laid off in June.

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Tags: David Weprin, Gambling, Horseracing, OTB, Slideshow