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Old 08-13-2017, 09:40 PM   #365
highnote
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ultracapper View Post
In the 1970s, 80% of the tracks open in the US were built in the 30s. The reason for this huge increase, basically everything outside of NY, KY, and MD, was the need for deposits into state treasuries. The reason the industry even exists was to provide an income stream to the state coffers, an income stream that is today, almost unnoticeable to most states. In the meantime, those tracks, that were opened by opportunistic businessmen, not horsemen, not gamblers, but businessmen, are sitting on real estate, that even in the words of a high level exec in the Stronach Group says, must produce income befitting an asset of that value, and a horse race track ain't even coming close to delivering.

This industry never did, and never will, exist for the gambler. There is no need to "turn on" the younger generation to horse racing because machines, wheels, dice and cards capture all the youth gamblers you could ever hope for, just as in the 40s and 50s the youth were turned on to the only game in town, horseracing. The horsemen will milk this cow dry as long as they can, then sell their farms to the first fast talking developer that comes down the pike. There is not a piece of real estate in the United States withing 100 miles of any mid to large metropolis that is maximizing it's value as a horse racing track.

The next day the state horse racing commission or a horsemen's group of any ABC affiliation shows concern for the gambler, will be the first day in the history of the industry that that concern has been shown. The gamblers didn't matter in 1937, and they matter even less in 2017. The gamblers will gamble, and every entity that realizes income from any kind of gambling game knows it. Nobody cares what they gamble on. They can gamble on whatever they want, as long as those that authorize it get their share. And the game that brings in the most income is the game that the powers that be will support.

That doesn't even address the societal changes and the different way that the horse itself is viewed by the public. in 1937 everybody, I mean everybody, knew somebody that owned a horse. I'd bet at least 25% of the American public today has never touched one, and maybe half of those have never seen one in the flesh.

Until the hard truths of why this industry even exists are accepted, and then the problems addressed from that paradigm, or until there can be a cataclysmic paradigm shift as to why horse racing should exist at all, the majority of ideas and efforts to make horse racing a "gambler friendly" game are nothing more than chasing your tail.
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