Delaware Cuts Purses Double Digits

[Shemp Howard]

For the first time since slot machines were introduced in Delaware in 1995, Delaware Park, near Wilmington, has cut horse-racing purses in the middle of a racing season, according to a horse-racing official.

The new purses, which take effect Saturday, range from $31,000 to $33,000. They are down by about 15 percent, or by $5,000 to $6,000.

They reflect a continued slide in slots revenue, which subsidizes horse racing in Delaware as it does in Pennsylvania, forcing the cuts, which will enable the track to finish its season of 81 race days, an official with the Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association said.

"We shaved 19 days off our schedule to keep the purses at a higher level, but since then the level has dropped again, so you either have to lose more days or you have to adjust your purse schedule. There's only two ways to go in and slice that," said Bessie Gruwell, executive director of the association.



Delaware Park shortened its racing season last year.

Delaware has casinos at three race tracks. In addition to Delaware Park, there are casinos at Dover Downs, near Dover, and at Harrington Raceway.

Slot machine revenue for the three casinos was $637 million in 2006, when the first Pennsylvania casino opened. It has fallen every year since. Last year, Delaware slot machine revenue was $375 million, and it is down nearly 10 percent for the first six months of 2014.

Horse racing's slice of that revenue fell to $34 million last year from $72 million in 2006, according to data from the Delaware Lottery, which regulates casino gambling.

Conditions are not expected to improve with the scheduled opening of a casino in downtown Baltimore at the end of this month. Delaware lost significant gambling revenue when Maryland Live! opened in Hanover, Md., two years ago.

The money in the Mid-Atlantic region gets split into smaller and smaller slices, Gruwell said: "We're all trying to attract the same basic customers."

[alhattab]

Originally Posted by Shemp Howard

For the first time since slot machines were introduced in Delaware in 1995, Delaware Park, near Wilmington, has cut horse-racing purses in the middle of a racing season, according to a horse-racing official.

The new purses, which take effect Saturday, range from $31,000 to $33,000. They are down by about 15 percent, or by $5,000 to $6,000.

They reflect a continued slide in slots revenue, which subsidizes horse racing in Delaware as it does in Pennsylvania, forcing the cuts, which will enable the track to finish its season of 81 race days, an official with the Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association said.

"We shaved 19 days off our schedule to keep the purses at a higher level, but since then the level has dropped again, so you either have to lose more days or you have to adjust your purse schedule. There's only two ways to go in and slice that," said Bessie Gruwell, executive director of the association.



Delaware Park shortened its racing season last year.

Delaware has casinos at three race tracks. In addition to Delaware Park, there are casinos at Dover Downs, near Dover, and at Harrington Raceway.

Slot machine revenue for the three casinos was $637 million in 2006, when the first Pennsylvania casino opened. It has fallen every year since. Last year, Delaware slot machine revenue was $375 million, and it is down nearly 10 percent for the first six months of 2014.

Horse racing's slice of that revenue fell to $34 million last year from $72 million in 2006, according to data from the Delaware Lottery, which regulates casino gambling.

Conditions are not expected to improve with the scheduled opening of a casino in downtown Baltimore at the end of this month. Delaware lost significant gambling revenue when Maryland Live! opened in Hanover, Md., two years ago.

The money in the Mid-Atlantic region gets split into smaller and smaller slices, Gruwell said: "We're all trying to attract the same basic customers."

Hopefully Delaware will be the first state to come to its senses and significantly curtail or completely eliminate racing. Unlike PA, as far as I know there is no meaningful Delaware breeding program or other excuse to maintain racing for the sake of jobs. As stupid as that argument seems to me, I can see it being made in PA where there has been a meaningful increase in breeding operations and in related supporting industries.

[alhattab]

Just read Monmouth is also cutting 10% effective 8/8

[Some_One]

And for comparison sake, Hong Kong announced last month their raising purses 10% for the 14/15 season.

[JustRalph]

The slide continues. As predicted by many.

Only twenty more tracks to go

[Tom]

They will have to card more races to make up for the loss of money.

[Some_One]

Originally Posted by Tom

They will have to card more races to make up for the loss of money.

Take that back now!

[nearco]

Originally Posted by Some_One

And for comparison sake, Hong Kong announced last month their raising purses 10% for the 14/15 season.

They did this without slots? Amazing

[Some_One]

Originally Posted by nearco

They did this without slots? Amazing

One of the main reasons was they got the government to change how they were taxed, moving from a % of each bet to a % of the club's profits, which allowed the HKJC to offer a 10% rebate on losing bets. They had to promise that the 'contribution' (i.e. taxes) to the government would not go below a certain baseline level and except for a slight top up in the first year (if I remember correctly), their contribution has gone up every year.

Of course the HKJC fan-awareness programs are great and Happy Valley has a great atmosphere for the causal fan IMO

[lamboguy]

pretty soon the slot machines are going to need to be subsidized by the racing.

[Big Russ]

Del Park is one of my favorite places to attend live racing. I cannot imagine how losing a venue such as this could be good for our sport. Yes, it's incredibly frustrating that there are not enough owners/horses to support the amount of racing going on in the summer. But the long-term solution is not to keep closing tracks and cutting racing. We must grow interest to the point where we get a lot more people involved as owners.

[forced89]

Ship to Oaklawn for Jan - Apr. Their purses go up year after year.

[VeryOldMan]

Originally Posted by alhattab

Just read Monmouth is also cutting 10% effective 8/8

Looks like Charles Town has also just cut purses in the 5% range. Former $11,000 purses are now $10,500; MSW cut from $26,000 to $25,000, etc.

[Seabiscuit@AR]

Hong Kong racing does get funding from the HKJC offering soccer betting which is the same as the slots money

But the guy running HK racing at least understands that the most important thing is to get more money wagered on the races instead of giving up on betting turnover from the horses and relying on slots welfare to survive

[Track Collector]

Originally Posted by VeryOldMan

Looks like Charles Town has also just cut purses in the 5% range. Former $11,000 purses are now $10,500; MSW cut from $26,000 to $25,000, etc.

They have also reduced the number of races on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 8.