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Audit Objective

Determine whether the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation (Corporation) Board of Directors (Board) distributed tickets from the Marketing and Promotional Program (Program) in accordance with regulations and guidelines.

Key Findings

The Board did not distribute Program tickets in accordance with the New York State Gaming Commission’s (Commission) Regulations and Guidelines:

• The Board did not adopt a written policy to administer and account for ticket distribution.
• Corporation officials used resources to purchase tickets that were given to Board members, management, employees, Corporation vendors and charities. Had these resources been used for promotions such as retaining and rewarding loyal customers and targeting prospective customers the Corporation could have increased player participation and related revenues and subsequently increased revenues to participating municipalities.
• At least 547, or 9 percent, of Program tickets were given to non-players. However, due to incomplete records and the likelihood other tickets were given to non-players the number of tickets given to non-players is most likely greater.

Key Recommendations

• Develop and adopt a written policy to administer the Program.
• Develop a system to maintain a complete, detailed and accurate record of all tickets distributed.

Corporation officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate or have already initiated corrective action. Appendix B includes our comment to clarify information in the Corporation’s response.