I didn't bet the race, but I noticed something odd yesterday Fri 07-22-2022 at Penn National.
R6 was scratched down to a field of 2.
The winner #1 UNCLE BUDDY paid $2.10 to win.
Looking at the win pool $2.10 was definitely the correct payoff.
The odd thing was that for the entire time betting remained open:
The odds displayed for #1 on the PEN track video were 1 to 9.
But if you do the math:
A $2.10 win payoff isn't 1 to 9.
A $0.10 return on a $2.00 wager is actually 1 to 20.
If I were selling bananas in a grocery store in Pennsylvania and my signage said they were 59 cents a pound but my scales were actually weighing out every 1.00 pounds as 1.05 pounds:
The state of Pennsylvania would have a problem with that.
How is this any different?
It's not.
Now the funny thing is that as soon as I looked at the win pool amounts I knew that if the #1 horse won they were going to pay $2.10. Never once did I expect them to pay out $2.20.
It only occurred to me after the race was official that a $0.10 return on a $2.00 wager is actually odds of 1 to 20.
But if you are going to pay $2.10 to win in Pennsylvania, I'm thinking maybe earmark some of the slots subsidy you've been getting all these years to display the correct odds on your track video.
On the more serious side... THUMBS UP to Kentucky for paying out to the penny!
-jp
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