Talk about a turnaround.
It wasn’t too long ago that the future looked quite grim for Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation. Rapidly declining horseracing handle and increasing operating expenses sunk the public benefit entity into a $17.5 million hole, forcing it to file for municipal bankruptcy in 2011.
“We were pretty much dead in the water, just really struggling,” said Phil Nolan, who served as Suffolk OTB’s president and CEO from 2012 through 2020. “The handle keeps going down on the horseracing and that’s what we were formed for.”
To right the ship, Suffolk OTB’s leadership embarked on a multi-pronged belt-tightening plan that included shedding property and trimming staff, while renegotiating and cancelling contracts.
