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Old 03-20-2012, 09:54 AM   #1
Grits
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Beyer: Slots-Racing. Marriage on the rocks.

http://www.drf.com/news/beyer-slots-...marriage-rocks
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Old 03-20-2012, 10:15 AM   #2
rubicon55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Grits
Thanks for sharing the article. IMO - with greed being a powerful motivator either for good or bad it will be interesting to see how the landscape of thoroughbred horse racing will change. Andy as well as others have shown the iconic writing on the wall. IMO as others believe there will be some sort of change - most likely sooner than later since the economy appears to be recovering soooo slowly and local goverments are always looking for more ways to support their communities basic needs and programs. Thanks again.

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Old 03-20-2012, 11:28 AM   #3
Robert Goren
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And yet new places are trumpeting racinos as the way to save horse racing in their areas despite the many failures of them in other locations. I am glad that such a well respected horse player like Beyer has added his voice to the conversation.
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Old 03-20-2012, 12:37 PM   #4
HoofedInTheChest
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I get a kick out of these articles, here in southern Ontario the provincial government are calling it subsidies, they take 80% of the profits and divide the other 20% between 17 tracks. The provincial government has absolutely nothing to do with the running of the slots except for giving it the ok to let it happen, if anything the tracks are subsidizing the province. Now they want to remove the slots completely from the tracks, open up a large casino in the downtown area (which 70% of the people polled don't want) and reep all the profits for the province. Then they have the audacity to say this will create 2300 jobs, well what about the 60 000 jobs horse racing directly and indirectly create's each year? Your telling me you would rather see an ungodly amount of people collecting unemployment so 2300 can work a casino? That no one wants!

There are two casino's within an hour of Toronto, how do you think the new casino will affect Casinorama and Fallsview? My guess would be devastating, i think it's better served if things were left they way they are, putting a casino on the doorstep of a problem gambler is irresponsible. The way it is set up now is probably doing the gambler a favor, having to drive an hour will probably save him some dough in the long run. The two older casino's will definately feel the effect as well as the town or city they reside in, that's a whole other can of worms.

I really don't see why the slots at the tracks and the new casino can't coexist, the bottom line is people won't drive out of there way to play some slots with today's gas prices. They both will turn a hefty profit and no one will have their job torn out from underneath them. The business model that Dalton McGuinty is about to put in place is flawed, and i'm not saying this as a biased horseplayer but as a concerned taxpayer, do you really think the casino profits will cover the unemployment and retraining of that many people? I don't think so....... c'mon man use your head!

Your about to kill one of Canada's oldest industries only to create new problems the public can already foresee. You want to rape the public of all their disposable income with this restructuring of legal sports betting and casino's all because of your mismanagement of taxpayer's money. How does a city with 8 billion in annual municipal taxes only receive 1 billion in services?

I don't know how the slots are regulated in the U.S. but i take it from alot of you the slots are not the answer to the problems with the game down south. But from what i have seen from Woodbine in the last ten years is the track is thriving and used as a model at some American tracks. The feds take 5% of the pools at Woodbine as well as the "subsidies" it creates for the province, why would you want to mess with that? If anything you should be building on that, not trying to take it away.

This story isn't over yet, from what i understand the industry and the general public have unleashed a shit storm on the provincial government, hopefully someone with some basic logic is listening.

As usual, Dalton......... your not even qualified to sweep the floors, maybe you can get a job mucking stalls when your ousted in the next election..... that's if the tracks still exist.
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Old 03-20-2012, 02:31 PM   #5
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I agree with the article statement that horsemen and racing should've seen this coming big time. Why the heck do these big cash casino/slots want to keep feeding money to racing? They can use the money for other things and use the land to build more money making machines, hotels, etc. Plus the governement gets more money from the casinos I would gather.

Casinos never wanted to help racing, they just wanted to get their foot in the door. Racing should've fixed itself. There was other ways to do it.
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Old 03-20-2012, 03:37 PM   #6
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People have got to start looking at both sides of the governmental financial picture. I'm not talking about horse racing here.

Ever notice how only the real services that real people need are the ones that are cut?

All politicians in Illinois are crying in their champagne about such dire straits when they provide tax subsidies and cash incentives to corporations that don't deserve it on the basis of "the jobs it will create." Those jobs never come and the corporations have also shouted a big EFF YOU as they cut 2,500 or 3,700 jobs! Our glorious pipsqueak dictator mayor has the money to install "safety cameras" at schools with data he is lying about and not being able to cover the city properly with cops. We can afford to hold a NATO summit, but are well content to throw mental patients who need basic service to the street.

It's easy for these politicians to cry and cut our services, but there has not been one bit of fiscal reform on the part of government or the financial industry despite the treasonous actions of those involved.

As for horse racing, when fans, a precious few columnists and members of forums like this one have been passionately offering real solutions to the game's problems, the industry has offered nothing but childish, parochial bickering and fiddle-dee-dee inaction on all sorts of issues, any issue that you would want to choose.

Hell, a top suit at Churchill Down Inc. stated almost gleefully recently that CDI is no longer a horse racing company. His tone was "yeah, we'll continue to run the Derby (because it's so damn profitable), but if it wasn't, we'd be out of it. We're on to better things now." CDI's social stratification of the Derby and Churchill Downs is disgusting, with bleeding the racing fan's rock dry as its main goal.

Racing has not taken care of its own house for lo these many decades and now finds itself without any real foundation to stand on. That's one problem. But now that you have politicians looking to make a name for themselves and their personal futures, racing may truly be on the brink with the center of balance well off the cliff.

And to the casual or uninitiated, potential fan out there? The HBO "Luck" debacle was yet another wonderful event to have let happen.
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Old 03-20-2012, 03:50 PM   #7
Robert Goren
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If the government is in the jobs business(and it is to some extent), most taxpayers think there are better jobs to put their money into other than race track jobs.
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Some day in the not too distant future, horse players will betting on computer generated races over the net. Race tracks will become casinos and shopping centers. And some crooner will be belting out "there used to be a race track here".
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Old 03-20-2012, 05:58 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TommyCh

Hell, a top suit at Churchill Down Inc. stated almost gleefully recently that CDI is no longer a horse racing company. His tone was "yeah, we'll continue to run the Derby (because it's so damn profitable), but if it wasn't, we'd be out of it. We're on to better things now." CDI's social stratification of the Derby and Churchill Downs is disgusting, with bleeding the racing fan's rock dry as its main goal.
This is a problem that permeates the core fiber of business in America. I don't know what's in the water in these business schools, but as long as these dimwits at the top are rewarded with golden parachutes for running a business into the ground, it won't change. All these people know is cut expenses to boost profits. This is a short term fallacy for the sake of dressing up the balance sheet. They cut expenses until there is no value left in their product or service. It hurts the working population and the country as a whole. It's not business, it's anti-business (or madness).
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Old 03-20-2012, 06:16 PM   #9
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Why do I feel like I just perused the same article that I read every year by someone in racing, who is acting like the town crier, and yet this sport goes careening down the same path every year.
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Old 03-20-2012, 06:31 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by JustRalph
Why do I feel like I just perused the same article that I read every year by someone in racing, who is acting like the town crier, and yet this sport goes careening down the same path every year.
Because it's a slow realization by the politicians. Every year a few states move a little of the slot money away from the racetracks to something else, or talk about it. Thus far, the actual removal of the slot money hasn't taken place to any real degree, but whenever it's talked about you get articles like this.

I think the same way that racing has trouble lowering takeout because they would have to fight every state regulatory body to do so, the politicians haven't bothered to take the racetrack slot revenue because in some cases they got the anti-gambling factions to agree to slots if they would only be at places that already have gambling. So, they'd have to rewrite all of their state's regulatory laws, and considering the states are already cleaning up with the slots, it's not worth the trouble. Someday, eventually, it will be, but it's been a long time and we're still where we are, with slots subsidizing racing in many states (and adding more all the time).
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Old 03-20-2012, 06:33 PM   #11
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From Espn

At the start of February, a few weeks before the fatalities became headline news, while speaking with Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens about the purse enhancements, he voiced concern over the imbalance between purses and claiming price.

“There’s not much good that can come out of that situation,” Jerkens said.

Apparently Jerkens is still as sharp as a tack at age 82, and there might be a lesson to be learned in that.

While a leader like NYRA president and CEO Charles Hayward has to deal with groups like the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, perhaps he should also periodically talk in private with respected longtime horsemen like Jerkens, who are known for candidly speaking their mind, to hear and digest their take on the state of racing.
Hopefully he already does something along that line, but if not he should pump up the volume of chatter from those with the best, and most unbiased and honest perspectives.

Solutions are often out there. You just have to look in the right places.
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Old 03-20-2012, 06:36 PM   #12
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There will come a time when the slots also face a demise as well. When the customers realize they lose roughly 85% of the time. That's when reality will set in and taxes will have to be raised. You really don't expect the people making these poor decisions to swallow their own medicine, do you?

They missed the boat by not reducing takeout for the bettors with some of that slot money. Also by not promoting the sport or subsidizing the breeders that eventually disappeared creating the horse shortage which in turn only further weakened their offering. Instead, they overpaid for a product they were already getting at a lower price which only hurt the sport and the athletes that are the crux of the sport. Oh yeah, it wasn't too great for the fans either. BRILLIANT!

Now that they have weakened the sport they are going to pull the rug out from under it. Pure genius.
(Now I'm done)
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Old 03-20-2012, 06:59 PM   #13
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Nothing that hasn't been said here for years, but good to see it printed in the DRF.
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Old 03-20-2012, 07:10 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shouldacoulda
There will come a time when the slots also face a demise as well. When the customers realize they lose roughly 85% of the time. That's when reality will set in)

Slots are not new games and I don't see any demise in the future. People have been losing at slots for about a 100 years. I think all gamblers and people know about slot machines and that they win the majority of the time. Gamblers have been saying for decades going to AC or Vegas, "the house always wins". They know the drill

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Old 03-20-2012, 07:52 PM   #15
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I read the column that Turninforhome referenced above. It was published at espn.com and written by a man named Ehalt. It has flown under the radar, I think.

Not that the column is earth shaking, but I haven't seen it referenced outside of Equidaily.
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