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Originally Posted by cj
I agree with most of what you say. However, the steady rapid decline in handle means something has to be done to try to increase handle. Clearly, raising takeout doesn't work any longer. Also clearly, keeping it the same doesn't help either. If there is any interest in the survival of the sport, somebody is going to have to try something drastic. After all, even stupid politicians can figure out that 26% of nothing is nothing.
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I agree, but this takes me right back to original point.
Why would the government want to lower the take to help horse racing if currently the money is simply shifting from racing to casinos and lotteries and they are making as much or more that way and can eliminate the costs of racing?
If you think of all gambling as one giant pie that is stilll growing but also shifting between forms, the only thing the government needs to be interested in is that they have a piece of the action wherever it's shifting. The form is more or less irrelevant.
Helping racing by making it more attractive will probably not grow the overall gambling pie. It will probably just shift money from somewhere else back to racing.
That thinking is why they are addressing poker and ulimately sports, but not paying much attention to horses.
Poker and sports money was starting to shift off shore and they don't have a piece of that action. So they have the justice department cracking down on offshore sites.
Ultimately, IMO poker will be approved (and IMO so will sports betting), but it will be run by whoever paid off whichever corrupt politcians control that decision making and the government will have a peice of the action.
I'm not sure how to fix this mess long term, but I think the only hope is for consolidation of the tracks and for the tracks to become independent of the government other than paying taxes on profits and some minior regulation.
If they could consolidate, there would only be handful of highly profitable tracks.
If they were free of government, they could use the excess profits to make the track a more attractive experience, lower the take, and compete with other forms of gambling.
