Sport is made for betting

Californian racing authorities, in their infinite wisdom, decided that to fix all their funding issues they should screw the punter for even more money by increasing margins on most exotic bet types. A basic understanding of economics will tell you that increasing price will reduce turnover and thus players will have less to bet with next time. But, to get into the hierarchy of Californian racing and the government bodies who approved this staggering concept, an understanding of economic theory won't get you a job - you might actually be able to talk sense. HANA (Horseplayers Association of North America) and others called for a boycott of West Coast racing once the increase was implemented on January 1. Here are the figures for the first ten weeks or so of the year. California Horse Racing Boycott - Handle Losses Exceed $100 Million Follow the link for the full data, but from selected stats... Santa Anita - Handle (turnover) per race down 11.9% Golden Gate - Handle per r...

Magna Entertainment, owner of Golden Gate and Santa Anita racecourses, and Expressbet pari-mutuel wagering on those tracks is about to file for bankruptcy. Read this article from The Paulick Report So two of the USA's best racecourses are about to go broke. You'd think there's a buyer out there somewhere for them. But what about all the debts for prizemoney etc to owners, trainers, jockeys? Most of them are really struggling at the moment, they need this like a hole in the head, particularly with the US-style of racing where they stick to one track (at least for several weeks or months at a time) rather than race all over the state or country. Great Leighs going tits up in the UK is totally different - payments are centralised and jockeys and trainers run all over the UK. On top of this, Expressbet holds hundres of thousands, probably millions of funds in betting accounts from their gamblers. There is no regulatory system in the States where the company has to put up a huge...