Quote:
Originally Posted by chiguy
Been a weekend clerk for nearly 30 years in California and I have never worked at a facility where we had extra time to cancel or make a bet after the break. Got caught with a $200 WP ticket once that luckily ran 2nd and only cost me $30. I have also seen tons of late money action recently and my educated guess is that it is not happening at the mutuel clerk level or at a window on track or OTB. Think about how many devices and hubs are connected to the pool. Somewhere in there somebody has figured out how to exploit it. If you think about how many data hacks we have seen over the years, many at financial institutions that you can be sure had pretty solid security set-ups, and then you think about how well the racing industry handles things and to me it is an easy conclusion to come to.
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I appreciate your input here on this issue. Let me take you back to the 70's at Hollywood Park where I was betting in the Club House 2nd floor. There was a long row of empty ticket sellers and off in the corner to my right was a $10 window with the clerk and a customer standing motionless in front of the window. Nobody else was there so I ambled over to make a bet. I bet something and stepped back. The original customer moved back to the window and I heard him say something like "When I give the word, keep hitting the 10 to win".
As I recall, it was a sprint race with Laffit Pincay on the 10. The gate opened and the 10 broke on top. Harry Henson was making the call in his usual gravelly voice. The bettor told the clerk to "hit it" and the $10 win tickets started pumping out. Off to my left I could hear the clank of machines being locked coming my way. By the time this terminal was locked, there was a large stack of $10 win tickets on the 10. And yes, the 10 horse won.
I guess my point is that this sort of thing has been going on for a long time. I don't think there are mechanical locking terminals anymore but somewhere in the system, somebody may be exploiting the newest technology. Unless the whole betting process, end to end, becomes transparent to us, bettors are naturally going to be suspicious. I know I am.
