United Tote error for NYRA bettors of Keeneland's opening card.

[FenceBored]

Bettors through NYRA got 14% pick 4's on Keeneland's opening day card? Sweet.Due to an error originating with the United Tote totalisator system located in Kentucky ...

As a result, the prices paid through NYRA for the 10 Keeneland races on Friday and the first two races on Saturday were incorrect. The win, place, and show wagering takeout rates were 1.5 percent higher than they should have been, the exotics wagering takeout rates were 3 percent higher, and the Pick 4 takeout wagering was 5 percent lower than it should have been.
-- http://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/stories/Apr112012.shtml

[Robert Goren]

Pick 4 bettors got a bonus and the rest of the bettors got screwed. How is that sweet?

[Some_One]

It's the year 2012 and the technology tracks are using appear to be from 1912 still.

[Charli125]

It's the year 2012 and the technology tracks are using appear to be from 1912 still.

Unbelievable. It kills me that our tote system is so ridiculously behind basically EVERY other financial/transactional industry.

I wish we could get the Hong Kong Jockey Club to come over here and help us out. Unfortunately, we probably wouldn't listen.

[JustRalph]

Unbelievable. It kills me that our tote system is so ridiculously behind basically EVERY other financial/transactional industry.

I wish we could get the Hong Kong Jockey Club to come over here and help us out. Unfortunately, we probably wouldn't listen.

In fifty years they will probably being ruling us.....In more than tote systems :lol:

[foregoforever]

The most interesting part of all this was a paragraph in the DRF article:

http://www.drf.com/news/tote-mistake-keeneland-races-costs-nyra-bettors

Although the mistake most prominently affected the NYRA bettors, the rates did have a small but measurable impact on payouts for Keeneland races across the country because of a system that began to be adopted at U.S. sites in the mid-2000s called net-pool pricing. The system allows sites to apply their own takeout rates to simulcast wagers, and also allows for the acceptance of bets in different currencies.

So one incompetent tote company can actually screw up the whole system. The DRF article gave no further details. One would think if United underpaid on a specific wager, then the other totes would have overpaid, but I'm not sure of it. I never had the patience to work through the math on how net-pool pricing works.