Tom Lamarra wrote an interesting article at Blood Horse detailing the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission's push to hold racetracks in the Keystone State accountable for promoting live racing and breeding as part of legislation authorizing table games.
Lamarra's article comes just 15 days after this blog published Thoroughbred Times correspondent Tom DeMartini's scathing review of the live racing experience at Philadelphia Park.
Philadelphia Park has a current average purse distribution of $262,887, so you probably won't find many local horsemen who are disappointed with the expanded gaming model, but I sure am.
The rule in states with expanded gaming should be that takeout on horse racing wagers cannot exceed the takeout on slot machines, which is typically in the 10% range. I've excluded table games because I wouldn't expect racing to do a 1% takeout like you could find with craps or blackjack with liberal rules.
Regulators and racing could even get creative with the rule, that is the average takeout needs to be 10%. This could allow tracks to try a "no takeout" or "low takeout" (e.g. 5%) promotion on certain bets at certain times while offering a higher takeout on certain other wagers.
Being creative with carryover pools, as NYRA is with its Pick 6 pool could also work. Philly or Penn National could offer a 5% takeout on P6. When there's a carryover of four figures (the pools are small), it jumps to 10%. When the carryover is five figures, it's 15%, six figures 20% and seven figures 25%.
Horsemen should be the ones championing this cause because of states realize that all that money going to purses and breeder incentives isn't increasing interest in the game, then they're going to cut those funds. So in the case of Philly Park, Greenwood would likely still maintain a decent chunk of operating revenue from slots while money to horsemen in the form of purses get slashed.
All that is to say that horsemen have a bigger interest in seeing the sport grow than Greenwood does since the operator is entrenched enough in the gaming business now that it wouldn't miss the racing (see Harrah's wanting to shutdown greyhound racing in Iowa as an example--the people associated with dog racing lose everything while Harrah's keeps the gaming).
It's nice to see Pennsylvania regulators hold the tracks accountable, but remodeling the grandstand to make room for a poker room shouldn't pass muster as "growing live racing."
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