In 2022, Chautauqua County received nearly $400,000 through Off Track Betting. Questions remain if that revenue will drop in the future, due to upcoming changes to the OTB’s Board of Directors.

According to Assemblyman Joe Guglio, R-Gowanda, the Western Regional OTB Board of Directors consists of 17 members, one member from each county in the region and one from the cities of Rochester and Buffalo. The newly adopted state budget will terminate all 17 current members and create a completely new Board of Directors comprised of 17 members, but with each member given weighted votes assigned according to the population of the counties and municipalities within the region.

“This new board would effectively allow a select few municipalities to control the Western Regional OTB Corporation Board of Directors,” Guglio said in a news release. “The lion’s share of votes would go to Erie and Monroe counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester; smaller counties would have virtually no voice in the operation of the OTB in our region. A power grab of this magnitude is unfair and unnecessary.

The current system, which has worked very well for this region for many years, would be gutted and replaced to allow major population centers to dominate the operations of the OTB Corporation. Smaller counties rely on the revenue generated by OTB operations and deserve equal representation on the Board of Directors. This move is unfair and unwarranted.”

State Sen. George Borrello, R-Irving, expressed similar concerns. “This blatant power grab will undermine the voices of the rural counties who are part of the OTB board and put at risk the successful operation of Batavia Downs, the only profitable Western Regional OTB location,” he said.

For Chautauqua County, Vince Horrigan of Bemus Point, a former county legislator and executive, is currently the county’s representative, a position he accepted in October.

County Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon, R-Ellery, said it is his understanding that although the OTB board will be dismantled, the legislature can reappoint Horrigan to that same position. The downside is he won’t have the same voting power because counties with larger populations will have more authority with the weighted votes.

Chagnon said for the immediate future, there probably won’t be any changes, but he does wonder how this new weighted board will impact the county in the long term. “The danger is that the representatives of the larger communities — the cities, the larger counties — will potentially influence how the proceeds are distributed,” he said during a phone interview.

According to documents received from the county’s Department of Finance, revenue from OTB has been going up. In 2018, the county received $114,417. In 2019, the county received $168,690. In 2020, which was the year the pandemic started, the revenue dropped to $44,931. In 2021, OTB revenue recovered and the county received $210,356. In 2022, the county received $395,656.

County Executive PJ Wendel doesn’t believe any changes to the OTB Board of Directors should have been done through the state budget process. “It stands to question, why does it (OTB) make it to the governor’s state budget? … That’s a policy issue. It shouldn’t be part of the budget,” he said.

He also said changing the OTB Board of Directors has been discussed for over a year. There had been talk about reducing smaller counties, but now this latest plan uses weighted votes, which still hurts smaller counties. “It shouldn’t be masked with, ‘Oh, we still have 17. We still have 17, with a huge majority of votes going to those urban counties,” he said.

There are two OTB locations in Chautauqua County. Jamestown has a full OTB at 1345 E. Second St. In Dunkirk, OTB operates out of Matt’s News at 93 E. Third St. as an E-Z Bet location.

According to OTB’s website, Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation operates 12 branches, 26 E-Z Bet locations, and a telephone wagering service in seven counties of Western New York. WROTB also owns and operates Batavia Downs Gaming, a standard bred racetrack and gaming facility.

Western Regional Off-Track Betting is a public benefit corporation that is owned by 15 counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester.