Quote:
Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage
Of course people are leaving the game...they've been leaving the game for 50-60-70 years...
If the CRW teams and the whales NEVER EXISTED, I dare say the game would be on extreme life-support right now, existing in only the biggest markets.
So it's kind of a catch-22...you kill the whales now, you really kill the handle and you kill the game even more. And if the whales never existed, the declining fan base would have happened anyway (since it was already happening before the whales and CRWs)...thus the sport would still be screwed.
So what to do?
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I answered that earlier and I have been answering that question for 3 years. You lower take to 8-10-12 percent and eliminate all rebates and the Whales will still feed, and the fish will be playing a game that they consider fair and will stick around. A good portion of the fish will probaby delude themselve into thinking they are winning when they are not. Amongst the non whlaes will be a large group of Players that will become earners. Players that might make 3 to 7% roi each year(they can't do it in todays game without big rebates but they will be able to do it in the game I propose). Yes these players will make the game worse for the fish, but that is the game we play. The game in it's natural state is sustainable. The game altered with rebates is not. It is obviously sustainable for quite a while, because this has been going on for close to 20 years, but I think we have finallly reaching the point where the next 20 years is going to be a heck of a lot more challenging then the last 20. Especially if the kind of talent that Ian is talking about is going to enter the game.
Why exactly should the fan base be declining? Why should betting be going down or remain stagant? Anybody can watch and bet a race from anywhere now. You used to have to live somewhere near a racetrack or otb.......If we were dealing with a fair game as I propose, then everyone who likes to gamble would be interested. Whether they would become horseplayers long term, who knows, but they certainly wouldn't shut the door before they bet their first race as most intelligent gamblers currently do.
Why do you and this industry feel that the general public is so willing to take it so for up the you know what. Just like if I have a poker game every week and every week me and my buddy Joe are big winners and the rest of the 8 guys, lose, lose, lose, it doesn't take long for the other 8 guys to leave the game.
People do not mind gambling and losing. People do not like being shafted. In today's game they are being shafted. Plain and simple.
I don't have a problem with Whales. They are playing the same game I am, if they are using computers to do it faster, so be it. If they are betting more money so be it. If they are smarter than me so be it. As mentioned, they are wrong plenty. I have a problem with Whales or anymone else being rebated. Because that changes the game and makes it unbeatable for almost everyone else who isn't. That makes for a game that cannot possibly grow and with all the competion out there that will lead to the demise of racing.
