Whipped Cream Difficulties

New York has finally taken the Off-Track Betting Corporation out behind the barn and shot it.

Closing costs have been estimated at $19 million, and pension and health benefits for retirees could climb above $600 million. Track owners seem less likely than ever to collect the $67 million they are owed, and the state would probably lose the $11 million it has coming.

I know what you’re asking yourself: “Gee, I wonder what Jesus Leonardo is going to do?” For those who may not recall, Mr. Leonardo was profiled in the NYT last year; he’s a “stooper”, someone who picks up discarded tickets and cashes in the winners. Somehow, he’s able to make a claimed $45,000 a year off of this activity.

The 58-year-old Leonardo, who lives in Wanaque, N.J., has devised a plan that will allow him to continue searching for someone else’s lost treasure. He has increased his ticket-collecting staff to six, and has started dispatching them on a rotating basis to racetracks in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. The runners meet at a neutral site every night and turn over the discarded betting slips to Leonardo, who then takes them to individual tracks for scanning.