Seediest Place

[KidCapper]

Night racing at DRC. Back when the windows were separated. Betting & cashing in different lines......you could feel the eyes of people watching you cash a winner.....laying 8-5 whether you made it to the parking lot with your winnings...

[AlBundy33]

I feel the love for my hometown tracks (Hazel/DRC).

[baconswitchfarm]

My worst track is without a doubt Thunder Ridge harness track in eastern Kentucky. It would be condemned if it was any other business. Worst otb is a tie. The simulcast in Juarez Mexico just across the bridge from El Paso Texas is super seedy. The otb in a basement of a downtown hotel in Fargo North Dakota is the dirtiest , filthiest, smallest otb on earth.

[Ocala Mike]

An actual "horse room," like something out of "The Sting," in Biloxi, MS during the summer of 1964. I was stationed at Keesler AFB and looking for some action. This place was right on the main drag downtown, so obviously legal, but quite off-limits to base personnel. It had the old fashioned teller's cages, chalkboards for the entries, and bare wooden floors; practically nobody in it, but I got a bet booked, which lost. Results came in by wire, I think.

MS was a funny state at the time, totally dry and gambling-free in most counties, but wide open in the counties along the Gulf Coast, including Harrison (Biloxi/Gulfport). Might be the same today, for all I know.

[Redboard]

Atlantic City racetrack(RIP). I went there once around 10 years ago, it was the year before they opened Favorites(OTB) in nearby Vineland. No live racing at the time I was there. Very dull monitors and half of them didn’t work.

[Exotic1]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I always considered getting back to my car with my money part of the gambling action of the day whenever I went to the OTB on Hillside Ave in Queens.

I may have a topper though.

I was in an OTB in Manhattan one time and the manager and one of the better looking female clerks disappeared into his office for awhile (if you know what I mean). While that was going on another clerk was selling porn at his window.

Some of NYC OTB's were right next door to porn shops. You sure you were in the OTB?

Just joking of course.

[dnlgfnk]

Originally Posted by parlay

Was in Bridgetown this past December. I was walking though town and suddenly saw 2 OTB'S. I walked into the seedier looking one just to see what was going on and for some unknown reason my wife followed me in. She took one look and ran out, and i quickly followed. It was a zoo, so bad that even i wouldn't go there if it was my only option.

Thanks, Parlay, for erasing 23 years of regret.

Honeymooned in Barbados. We went to Bridgetown, she for the duty-free bangles, me for the track or maybe an OTB to help pay for them...but I never made it.

The nearest grocery, a few meters outside our resort boundary, featured the only racing I would see that week--several cockroaches in broad daylight sprinting across the bread shelves. Also, I tossed a salamander down the toilet at 2 AM, stopping up the works. I thought they were amphibious?

[BELMONT 6-6-09]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I always considered getting back to my car with my money part of the gambling action of the day whenever I went to the OTB on Hillside Ave in Queens.

I may have a topper though.

I was in an OTB in Manhattan one time and the manager and one of the better looking female clerks disappeared into his office for awhile (if you know what I mean). While that was going on another clerk was selling porn at his window.

I have to laugh because I have been to a number of OTB'S in the City ( I work for the City), and I have to say the joint on Hillside and 179th is one of the worst. ha ha the smell of the customers is your first obstacle and once inside watch for the pick pockets!! Fun day get in and get out after making the phone deposit

[NJ Stinks]

It was March 2000. I know because I remember the headline in the DRF that night when we got to the track. It said Greenwood Lake was injured in a workout and possibly off the Derby trail. I had just bet the horse in a Kentucky Derby Future bet and so had the guy who was with me that night! But I digress....

I was working in St. Louis for a week along with other guys from Jersey. One night we rented a limo to take us from our downtown hotel to an Italian restaurant on the Hill. After we got to the restaurant I spoke to the limo driver before going inside. I asked him how much it would cost roundtrip if a couple of us went to Fairmount Park. He said he'd have a price for me when he picked us up after we ate. But I digress....

The next night we arrived at Fairmount Park at around 6:00pm. There was live racing there that afternoon and place was a pigsty. Trash all over the floor and trash cans that were overflowing. We cleaned off a couple tables but there was nowhere to put the garbage. We played simulcasts until 10:30pm and in that time no track employee ever came around to clean up anything. Anyway, my buddy and I still joke about the time we took the Limo to The Dump!

(In all fairness I must add we arrived at Fairmount Park before dark and I thought the racecourse itself looked really nice.)

P.S. In case you were wondering, the quote from the limo service was $70 roundtrip (about 17 miles each way) and we were urged to give the driver a nice tip. (Yea, I was tempted to just tell the driver to never make a Kentucky Derby Future bet! )

[clemkadiddle]

See a few of us from the Detroit area...expressing our fond memories of Hazel Park and the DRC...

The seediest place I bet from is the one I have been betting from for years...Northville Downs.

I remember before the state lottery and casinos when it was the only action in town...harness racing (yuck). Big crowds, long lines, pay to park and to get in...cold beer in every corner nook bar...

Not anymore...dump (understatement)...even worse before smoking was banned. I would walk up to within 10 feet of the door back then and the smoke was just billowing out on a Saturday afternoon. The so-called no smoking areas featured jerks that were smoking anyway. Now these assholes are going to some of the closed off places or vacant downstairs to light up and avoid going outside. (Pussys...go outside in the cold and smoke like men...)

The place is falling apart. Don't drop your pen or you will find out the hard way that the carpet isn't vacuumed under the tables.

The fixtures in the lavatories are corroded and dirty. I'd rather urinate on the fence outside...speaking of outside...the old tote board has seen much better days.

The owner says he gets 3 calls a week from developers to buy the prime real estate it sits on. He doesn't sell in hopes of the asshole legislators finally getting some testicles to approve gaming at the tracks. If that happens...and I doubt it because Michigan does not know how to support racing opting for kissing the backsides of casinos...the owner will definitely reap much bigger rewards; he will sell to someone that will actually sink some money into it. (Which I would very much like to see.)

...and then the idiots toyed with the idea of running a thoroughbred meet...a half-mile oval with no chute for at least a 5 furlong around 2 turn race...unless they pushed it back into the barn area...

...and since no money is being invested, they needed to replace the rail...no wonder they balked at the last minute.

...and all this with the current thoroughbred industry in Michigan in dire straits...I would not bet on that circus. I would rather much bet on the horse flesh from the major tracks than spend a dime on that garbage (which currently "runs" at Hazel).

Northville sucks...but it is only 6 miles away...and I only bet 1 race a week and usually don't stay around for it.

[Shemp Howard]

Penn National simulcast room.......especially on a night when FatsO is running something.

His "partners" give most people the heebee jeebees.

[Prytanis]

The OTB on 28th street off 7th ave in NYC
I was working in the garment district, so I had no choice but to go there on my lunch time and bet a few races ,if I couldn't make it to the track.

[Milkshaker]

I wouldn't say it was seedy--I actually kinda liked it--but the first time I ever went to Hawthorne I somehow managed to cash a nice score. It was after dark in the winter, and I felt compelled to go into a stall in the men's room, remove a shoe, and put the money deep inside my sock before heading out in the dark to catch the shuttle bus to the subway. Just a "victim in waiting" kinda vibe for me.

[horses4courses]

Originally Posted by dnlgfnk

Also, I tossed a salamander down the toilet at 2 AM

There was a time I might have thought that was code for something else

[Zaf]

Originally Posted by cj

I haven't been in a decade, but Rosecroft was pretty bad. I never, ever got excited when I won and would come back during the day to cash tickets.

Yep was there once, a long time ago, the worst.

Z