News stories have cropped up lately on the problems Off-Track Betting is suffering in New York State. Apparently, the State itself has taken over management of these longtime money-losing operations.

One of the key problems is the protracted decline in the popularity of horse-racing. Even if the ancillary problems like corruption, mismanagement and all the rest were resolved, Off-Track Betting would lose money year over year simply because there are fewer and fewer degenerate gamblers playing the ponies these days.

There is no shortage, however, of guys who like to throw down on football, baseball, basketball, and all the other team and individual sports.

Since New York has effectively legalized gambling in the form of lotteries and horse racing, why not diversify and create sports books? Just think of the tax revenue that could flow to the State from all the degenerates playing the spread for sixteen Sundays, going for the long shots in boxing, or betting the Yankees-Red Sox games.

Now, if New York would compile vice upon vice, the State would really clean up by enabling strip clubs to incorporate this newly diversified form of OTB. When guys win big, one of the first places they hit are the girlie-bars to celebrate. Well hey, why make them go across town? Let them enjoy the games right at the strip clubs and when they win, they can blow all their winnings down a g-string. If they lose, well, here is an attractive woman to console you for whatever is left on your credit card. Tax them going and tax them, err, well, coming, if you will.

It might also be nice to have casinos open up in Times Square. That way folks do not have to drive all the way to fucking Atlantic City or Foxwoods to get their Hold em fix, or bet their IRAs on the next high-risk investment trend.

I suppose there is some kind of moral argument against these ideas, but it seems to me that New York - and a lot of States for that matter - has been facilitating the gambling vice by running a numbers game for decades. Why waste taxpayer money propping up a dying industry when we could rake in billions simply giving people what they want?

Heck, New York might even be able to fund a single-payer healthcare system on football percentages alone!