FreedomAtStake's Blog

This is why horseracing sucks

By FreedomAtStake | View all Posts
Posted Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:44 AM   0 comments
As a person who is still able to move about without a walker, I naturally don't have a lot of interest in horseracing. Sure, I've been to the track a couple of times, and have been to an OTB parlour once or twice, but I just never had the urge to bet the ponies once I left.

Perhaps it was because I never had a mentor and didn't understand the nuances of the sport. Perhaps it was because the old farts running the sport weren't interested in my business. Perhaps it was because the only time I saw a race on TV as a kid was during the Triple Crown, and by the time TVG showed up I was too old to be converted. Perhaps it was because I viewed horseracing as uncool.

Probably it was all of the above.

Either way, the horseracing industry is dying. And not a slow death either. As it's core market of 70-somethings dies off, nobody is filling the void. Just this week, New York city mayor Micheal Bloomberg put the NY OTB on death-row.

Meanwhile Washington Post columnist Andrew Breyer wrote a great piece today outlining how the horseracing industry appears to be doing it's utmost to piss off the remaining horseracing fans.

Apparently a complicated effort to make more money save the industry is backfiring horribly, which is why you no longer can watch the races you want on TVG. And it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. These things always do.

The question is whether they can right this mess before people simply forget that horseracing exists.

We've said it before and we'll say it again... If sports gambling were allowed at horse tracks, the horseracing industry would be thriving right now. Not only would it be a sensible place to locate sportsbetting parlours, but the internal controls on the racing industry would translate nicely to sports betting.

Finally, it would give a whole new generation of gamblers exposure to a form of legal betting. It just makes sense. It's a combination that makes Reese's Peanut Butter Cups pale in comparison.

Let's face it... this idea is about the only thing that can save horseracing right now.

But unfortunately, it just makes too much sense to ever happen.
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User: Freedom@Stake
Joined: July 1995
Location: Ireland
Team: Florida State Seminoles
Occupation: Media

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