Racing in general

[karlskorner]

According to todays DRF Turfway and Fair Grounds have "flattened out". Fair Grounds is praying for "slot machines". Aqueduct can't get more than 6000 patrons on the weekends from a surrounding community of 15 million.

In my own backyard Hialeah is finished. 2300 pass through the gates on weekdays (1/3 of which are employees and backside people) Gulfstream Park showed a slight increase in handle and Calder plods along with the same 4-5000 people daily. I am old, but their older, the call me "sonny"

Are slot machines, and live entertainment the answer ?
I watch the crowds amble in around 2:00 PM, pushing these small tanks k/a baby carriages (stuffed with a weeks supply of food) they listen to the music and head back home (for $3.00 it's a great buy) The have no idea where the betting windows are, but they do find the bathrooms.

I don't have the answer, I don't think others have it either, but I admire Frank Stronch for trying.

Karl

[BIG HIT]

I live in michigan we had one thourgh breds track close.The other switch to harness only and runner are simulcast they refused to put slots in tracks. politics they tried to get people out there by give mugs and other b.s. so now it is a mall of sorts. they use to say come here the thunder or bet your favorite number.Maybe if they would have treated the customer as that smile like they were glad you came and showed people you have a much better chance at winning there then the casino it could all be different. but watching the simulcast track they just keep doing what they have been doing the thirty years not much change of anything

[Lefty]

I live in Vegas and it seems slots and racing mix very well. The guys wives usually play slots while they play horses and a lot of the older guys(get me i'm 63) float
between the two.
The bean counters at the Sahara hotel a few yrs ago got
the bright idea to eliminate the racebook and fill the area with more slots. After all, didn't the slots bring in more revenue? Well, when the racebook was gone the
slot action fell off as well. The racebook is back!
The bean counters have a hard time realizing that all this stuff is interrelated.
Sorta like the demos have a hard time understanding how a tax cut can stimulate the economy. Yet every time
it's done more revenue, not less comes into the IRS.
Well, slots and racing is kinda like that.
Racing's not dead just undergoing metamorphosis.

[BIG HIT]

Well lefty you are in the best state for gamebleing hands down.But a lot of states like mine just milk the cow till it dies.But windsor added slots to there tracks and had a positve reaction two.But for the most part they promote it wrong.I think anyway nice talking to you lefty.

[hdcper]

Hi everyone,

Well my take on this issue is very simple, where slot machines are legal adding them to a horse racing site certainly makes sense. It brings in the ladies and increases the purse structure for the horses. Where it isn't legal, why not add Bingo, the ladies love the game and their spouse can play the horses(a family outing).

But overall there is only one answer to increasing horse attendance and betting by the public(including the big players), lower the take so the player can survive and prosper for his or her hard work.

So race track management, when will you wake up!!!! Hopefully before it is too late!!!!

Just another opinion,

Hdcper

[karlskorner]

Gulfstream Park lowered the take out to 15% on win betting (one of the lowest in the country, if not the lowest). Nothing changed.

The last thing you will see happening is management lowering their takeout. To quote an owner I read about recently "If I put an 8 foot fence around the park, they (the patrons) would crawl underneath". We are a dedicated group, those of you who labored putting together your computer programs, others who by "trial and error" have stayed afloat, are not going to go away and management knows this.

Karl

[JimG]

Good discussion! Those that were brought up and hooked on horse racing will participate come hell or high water. I'm living proof of that<g>

However, I believe the problem is more long term than short term. The younger generation with disposable income and an inclination toward gambling likely first expereince gambling in the form of lotteries and casinos. Why go to a racetrack and sit around waiting to bet when you can get this instant gratification??

Now I'm 40..and when I was a kid Dad took me to the track...and I loved it...watching the horses run, the sights, the smells, etc. I still do and always will as long as God allows me to enjoy the sport. However, I was exposed to racing because my Dad, who loved to gamble, went and this was the only game in town in WV in the 1960's.

My point to this long post is racing cannot attract the kids today that will be the seniors in 2050. Those seniors will be at the riverboats and casinos. The best chance for racing to survive is to align itself with casinos and become a part of a mecca of entertainment. Sort of like an Epcot Center to Disney World. I think we will see many tracks go by the wayside (those that refuse to change) over the next 30 years.

Beleive me, I want to see the track take lowered and do beleive tracks would make more from existing customers as a result of more money being returned to the bettors, but it will not bring new players to the game. Only you and I can do that (by introducing family and friends to this sport) but unfortunately, we are dying in numbers.

Jim

[Whitehos]

Hey Big Hit,
Where were you when I fought the Michigan Corrupt Racing Comm. last year.? Why did You Bet and Ladbroke cut off Michigan?
Lowering the take out dosen't work. Slots help because of the faster action. ...and thats the problem. When given a choice the typical gambler wants and in some cases needs action. Casinos offer that faster action. As much as 45 minutes between races at some tracks is boring. The Meadows, a harness track has been playing with 12 minutes. Dover Downs, starts at 4 PM. has practically no attendance and races every 10 minutes.
My one trip to Great Lakes Downs, Michigans primier TB track found me and 50 other fans. Stonach bought the track for the simulcast action not the paying patrons.
The answer to my first question is that the owners of Hazel Park own the Meadows and rent it to Ladbroke. They at Hazel Park own the Mich. Racing Comm.

[Whitehos]

I should have used the spell checker.

[PaceAdvantage]

Whitehos,

You should be able to edit your own message..... :)



==PA

[Whitehos]

Man o man have you ever got the whistles and bells on this thing.

[PaceAdvantage]

Thanks! Now if I can only get the old messages back up, and alert the 100 other registered members of the old board that we're back up (and convince them to re-register), we may make something of this yet!! LOL


==PA

[karlskorner]

Check out Andy Beyer's story in todays Washington Post about the 14% takeout at Pimlico.

It's a start.

Karl

[Tom]

Originally posted by karlskorner
Check out Andy Beyer's story in todays Washington Post about the 14% takeout at Pimlico.

It's a start.

Karl

It only makes sense-tracks make money every time a dollar is bet. If people tap out and quit betting, then they make less. It is to the track (and to those evil
leeching state and local governments) to have every race pay out at $2.10!
Tha way, everyone has more to bet back. When the money is paid out in a large hit to a few people, it tends to stay in pockets rather than in cash drawers (unless it is a big spender like Beyer). But what happens when Joe-cab driver drops in to OTB, bets his license plate in the the pick 6 and hits for $125,000?
He probably won't bet it all back very quickly, so that is now cash out of the system.
If 8-5 shots start paying 2-1, then the crowd as a whole has more to bet back and everyone wins.
Oh my God, I just re-read that and it sure sounds like communism?
Oh well...
Tom