Following several reports and accusations of misuse from former state Senator George Maziarz, the Niagara County Legislature demanded a list of names of people who the Western Regional OTB have gifted tickets to various outings and sporting events.
- Virtuoso introducing resolution to take legal action to get "high rollers" list
- OTB says it's protecting customer privacy and calls resolution a "political stunt"
- Niagara County's rep on the OTB Board expected to answer questions
Weeks later, Democratic Legislator Dennis Virtuoso said the Legislature still doesn't have the list.
"It's supposed to be used for the high rollers of the casino and that's the initial intent of that and if they don't use that, then you’re misusing the tickets for other purposes, for your own purposes or for your own family and friends and colleagues and that's wrong," he said.
So next week Virtuoso is putting forward another resolution, asking the county attorney to take legal action to get it.
"It's not their playground where they can invite their friends to play," he said. "This is taxpayers' money because there's 15 counties and two cities that own OTB and when you're looking at, they're frivolously spending these profits that can go back to the taxpayers, then we should be looking into that."
OTB President Henry Wojtaszek said in order to stay competitive with Seneca Casinos, Batavia Downs Gaming provides these perks to loyal customers.
"We provide suite tickets on the floor of Batavia Downs Gaming and at our concerts, this brings people into our facility and builds loyalty with customers. We value our customers and will do everything we can to protect their privacy. This resolution is just another political stunt and it is disappointing to see Dennis Virtuoso do George Maziarz’s political dirty work for him," he said. "However if we were ordered to supply documents by a court, WROTB would comply."
It's not the only thing happening at next week's meeting. Virtuoso has another resolution asking the state comptroller to perform a full audit and Niagara County's representative on the OTB is supposed to appear to answer questions about, among other things, why the FBI is looking into vendor contracts.
"Let's hear what he has to say and if he's honest, I don't see any call to remove him, but if he's dishonest then I think we should look for another representative," Virtuoso said.
He said the municipalities that co-own the OTB don't have direct oversight, but their OTB representatives are responsible for taxpayer money.
"Each county should take a look at what representative they have and if they're just voting yes on everything and pushing everything through without really looking out for the taxpayers then they should be removed and replaced," he said.
The Niagara County board member is Elliott Winter, the son of Rick Winter who held one of the contracts Spectrum News learned the FBI inquired about.