Batavia, N.Y. (WBEN) - As a result of questions raised via letters by Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick regarding promo misuse, pay and more, Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp (WROTB), the company the operates Batavia Downs, is arranging a meeting in hopes to clear the air.
WROTB not only owns the gaming operations in Batavia but many off-track betting sites in 17 counties of Western and Upstate New York. As a result of the WROTB's last board meeting, WROTB President Henry Wojtaszek has invited the comptrollers or fiscal officers from each of the 17 counties to address the concerns that they have.
The meeting is October 5th, and Hardwick hopes to be in attendance, "I'm going to do everything I can to be there," says the comptroller.
Questions to be raised.
Hardwick says that the questions that he is looking for the board to address falls into four areas including misuse of market materials, "They have a ticket program where they handed out tickets to supposedly high rollers for Sabres games, Bills games, the theater, things like that that the state comptroller came down and criticized them on. They were apparently handing them out to friends and family. We really don't know who got all the tickets."
Another area of concern is benefits that the WROTB's board receives, "We wanted to ask them about health insurance that they give to their part-time board of directors, health insurance, which the State Comptroller and the State Attorney General had said they're not eligible for. So I wanted to find out who's getting that insurance and how much it's costing us," said Hardwick.
The comptroller would also like to know about the arrangements with the hotel build, "I wanted to find out about a hotel that was built by some investors on land that was given to them and then bought back after it was developed. There seems to be a significant profit on that."
Lastly, Hardwick wants to know how much money is being spent on retention of outside lobbyists, "Also, just ask them generally how much they're spending on lawyers and lobbyists. It seems from the outside, they're spending an inordinate amount of money on and promoting themselves through lobbyists and legal fees through a variety of lawyers."
Wojtaszek says that there will be presentations made during this meeting from OTB compliance officer Paul Moskal, who can talk on the WROTB's marketing program, their CFO, Jackie Leach, who will address financial queries and David Hart of Hart Hotels, which operates the hotel operation.