The Start Of Off Track Betting In New York City - 1971
In 1970 New York State enacted a bill allowing off-track betting in New York City.
The first betting parlor which opened April 8, 1971, was actually at Grand Central Station.
Being a railroad station,it had banks of windows originally used to purchase tickets. Seeing that so many of these ticket windows were not being used it was an an ideal setup for OTB.
It was a bit of a nightmare to say the least. Tickets for wagers were manually entered on a betting slip with the customer retaining one of the copies.
Needless to say, fraud, changed tickets, etc. took place. A few years later horses were assigned letters from A - Z. A customer would say $10 Win on the B horse. Customers were supposed to fill out betting slips then hand it to the teller for him to enter the wager.
This proved time consuming and bettors were shut out of races. The rules were relaxed and tellers took verbal bets. This proved to be "not a great thing".
Memorably,
Michael Todd
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