Pick 3 Payouts with a dead heat

[sq764]

I was curious if all tracks pay the same pick 3 payout for both horses if there is a dead heat?

I saw a race the other day where a 4/1 and an 18/1 shot dead heated in the 3rd leg of a pick 3. Both pick 3 payouts paid the same.. Is this common practice for all tracks that regardless of the amount of money wagered on each horse in the pool, they pay the same?

I could swear I have seen dead heats at other tracks that pay different amounts on the pick 3 payout.

[cj]

SQ,

As with most things in racing, the laws are different from state to state. Some pay the same amount for a dead heat in P3s, which is pretty stupid if you ask me (which you didn't,) while others pay according to the odds.

[sq764]

Just amazing to me that you could have (theoretically) a 1/5 shot dead heat with a 50/1 shot and get the same pick 3 payout on both..

[Valuist]

And its not an average of the two payoffs either; its automatically the lower of the two payoffs. (Bend over, bettors).

[takeout]

I think it’s a ridiculous practice that undermines the very soul of the game.

Tracks don’t do this in the W/P/S pools so why do they do it with pick 3s?

I’m guessing that this type of unfairness exists at many tracks and in many forms. I was never aware of it until the early ‘90s when I noticed the insane way that Charles Town pays out doubles and exactas when no one has a winning ticket. (They pay out on “all”, both ways, back and forth and up and down.) It’s a different example but with the same result in that the bettors that are the most correct, value-wise, are getting “mauled”.

Is this kind of lunacy put into the rules at tracks just to rake more breakage? Whatever it is it once again demonstrates how clueless the “powers that be” are when it comes to the actual game that they’re selling. Breakage should have been done away with a long time ago and in a competitive (pari-mutuel) endeavor the cream should be allowed to rise to the top. Those in the crowd that are right at the longest odds should be paid the longest money the same way a dead heat is paid in the W/P/S pools. It sure would be nice if this industry had a little consistency.

[mikekk]

It sure would be nice if this industry had a little consistency.


I think they're very consistent. It's called "Bend Over".

Racing decided a long time ago that those that "make" the product deserve the say; those that pay the daily fare for the product deserve whatever the tracks decide.

Rundown plants, snarly tellers, balky machines, short fields.

And then they're bewildered when "Bend Over" stops coming, quits playing, or takes his action offshore.

Mikekk

[midnight]

They don't eliminate breakage because in most (all?) states, the government gets every dime of it.

[takeout]

Yeah, I forgot for a minute there that the game only exist to be taxed. :D

I don't think that is any excuse for unfair rules like these though. I don’t know why they bother having odds if they’re going to pay everyone the same. It’s insane. They should stop with all of the sneaky underhanded taxing as I assume that it’s causing inequities in the betting rules almost everywhere.