Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
| Track Code | Track Name | Entry | Scratch | 1st Post ET | 1st Post Local | Time Zone | Stakes Race(s) | Stakes Grade | T.V. Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GG | GOLDEN GATE FIELDS | 48 | 24 | 3:45 PM | 12:45 PM | PDT | |||
| GP | GULFSTREAM PARK | 72 | 0 | 1:15 PM | 1:15 PM | EDT | |||
| SA | SANTA ANITA PARK | 72 | 24 | 3:30 PM | 12:30 PM | PDT | |||
| SUN | SUNLAND PARK | 120 | 0 | 2:30 PM |
can reduce takeouts then the nassau otb faithful can beat andrew cuomo into op ing the church of nassau otb on frank stronach day dunday april 1 2018so that we can play santa anita gulfstream golden gate and sunland
the Andrew cuomo crew could not even beat the wandering dago food truck
look at the payout by new york state in attorneys fees to the lawyers
Need cash ? beat andrew i will be pope oops president cuomo who stomps on the rights of nassau county bettors secured by ny const art 1 sec 3
let ny pml sec 109 burn in hell.
ny otbs care little about bettirs
let the keenelsnd docial media crew help us in. ny
Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., will restore lower takeout rates for many of its wagers during the track’s upcoming spring meet, three months after drawing the ire of the horseplaying community for raising the takeout rates on nearly all of its bets for last October’s fall meet, the track announced on Wednesday.
The decision to roll back the takeout increases on win, place, show, and exacta wagers is a striking reversal for Keeneland, which had defended the higher takeout rates last year as a means to bolster its purses, even as horseplayers took to social media to castigate the track and urge players to boycott the fall meet. Total wagering at Keeneland’s fall meet fell 8.7 percent compared with fall wagering in 2016.
“Keeneland’s goals are mission-oriented, and we continually review, measure, and listen to our customers across all business lines to ensure our operations promote the health and vibrancy of the horse industry,” Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales, said in a release.
Takeout rates on win, place, and show wagers will be reduced from 17.5 percent to 16 percent, the rate that preceded the increase. Takeout on exactas will be reduced from 22 percent to 19.5 percent, half a percentage point higher than the rate prior to the increase. All other takeouts on exotic wagers, such as the trifecta, superfecta, pick three, and pick four, will remain 22 percent, while the takeout on the pick five will remain at 15 percent. The takeout on the pick five was lowered last year with the takeout increases.
As when Keeneland raised its takeout rates, bettors took to social media immediately after the announcement Wednesday. They voiced their approval of the lower rates, with some claiming victory due to last year’s boycott. Keeneland’s reputation as a fan-friendly venue was significantly tarnished by the decision, with players complaining that the racetrack had betrayed one of its core constituencies.
In an interview, Elliston said that Keeneland talked with horseplayers following last year’s fall meet and decided that it would designate the win, place, show and exacta pools for rollbacks because the takeout rates for those pools were higher than competitors’ rates in the same pools. Elliston also said that those bets generally produce the highest rates of churn, or won money that is bet back into the pools.
“If you look specifically at win-place-show pools and the exacta pool, that is a total of 57 percent of our wagering,” Elliston said. “We were out of step there, and we needed to do something about that.”
Keeneland officials had defended the takeout hike as a means to increase revenue so that it could continue to raise purses at its two annual meets, as it has every year since 2012. Despite the drop in handle last fall, purses were up 3.3 percent.
Revenue from Keeneland’s auction business went into a free fall in 2008 after the collapse of the stock market and the subsequent tightening of credit markets, dropping from a high of $815.3 million in 2007 to a low of $381.6 million in 2010. Total sales in 2017 were $538.7 million, up 2.8 percent compared with total sales in 2016.
Elliston said that Keeneland will notify simulcast outlets about the new takeout rates in the coming weeks, and that the host fee rates paid by the outlets will decline at the same rate as the takeout reductions. When Keeneland raised its takeout rates, it split the extra revenue from the increases with host sites. Most host sites that award rebates to their biggest customers then increased the size of the awards so that rebated players did not play against the full increase in the takeout rates.
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