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OTB "Stooper" Makes Good Living Picking Up Discarded Tickets
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 8, 2009
Modified Dec 8, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 8, 2009
Modified Dec 8, 2009
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57-year-old Jesus Leonardo has long hair, a beard, and spends at least ten hours a day loitering in a midtown OTB. At first glance, he may look like all the other gambling deadbeats crumpling losing tickets in their yellowing fingers, but during the past decade Leonardo has netted nearly half a million dollars’ worth of winning tickets—without placing a single bet. In a must-read front page article in today's Times, Leonardo reveals everything about his work as a "stooper," collecting discarded tickets and running them through a ticket scanner "in a never-ending search for someone else’s lost treasure." "He’s a legend," says one OTB habituate. “Everyone knows that this is his turf, that all the tickets thrown out belong to him, period." That's right,nobody fucks with the Jesus.
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losing
OTB
stooper
stooping
tickets
winning
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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