And another weird New York institution bites the dust: The Off-Track Betting Corporation, the state-owned horse betting business, has finally closed after years of threatening to do so. Fifty parlors were shut down and 1,000 people were laid off.

Many things are ending in New York these days. From where we sleep to where we bob across the water to Staten Island to where we place our bets to where we Do It, all of New York is disappearing.

Well the comfort of an Off-Track Betting parlor anyway. The New York Times reports that one man has been pulling in up to $45,000 a year for a decade by collecting discarded betting slips.

The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power is taking bets on which celebrity will be the next to turn their backs on L. Ron Hubbard. John Travolta leads the pack at 9:4 odds, and Tom Cruise is at 50:1. Place your markers.

Gambling is the future of the media! Newspapers aren't much good to anybody looking to make a buck off investing in their stock—but that doesn't mean that you can't make your newspaper fortune through sweet, sweet gambling, come on now seven seven seven baby need a new pair of shoes, yea! After the jump, we've listed the half-dozen most famous economically challenged papers in the country, along with our official odds for their long-term survival. Place your bets, and give 5% to the house: