I always about the 'dwindling' interest in a venture where 1 billion dollars a years is bet on it through one outlet. I guess the media is so conditioned to call horseracing a 'dying' sport that they never stop to think about the billions of dollars of revenue derived from this venture. Of course it would take the newspapers to step out of their ivory towers to see that the horse racing business has a whole lot better chance of being in existence in 20 years than the print media business does.

Have you ever heard of "Letter to the Editor"? I am guessing this maybe a vehicle for an intelligent response?

And pointed the finger a bit more at Albany- again, because I don't fully understand the situation- that is where the majority of the money goes, correct?

(And Arljim, I too find it pretty hypocritical that states that run lotteries wring their hands about gambling. Or churches that run bingo nights. For that matter, what else is the stock market, really?)

If one good thing could come out of these editorials it would be that OTB situation is addressed once and for all. The Spitzer/NYRA agreement left the status quo in place and it's clearly obvious that is a failed business model.


GenuineRisk: As far as the finger pointing towards Albany, Steve Crist of the DRF explains how NYCOTB lead by political hack Ray (Rudy Giuliani's cousin) Casey made the mistake of agreeing to make extra payments to NYS in exchange for the right to take bets for throughbred races at night.
http://cristblog.drf.com/crist/2007/...ering-our.html

The NYCOTB and the five other statewide OTB's have a 6% surcharge on winning wagers. Yet NYCOTB considers this a surcharge an expense as stated in Matt Hegarty's article two weeks ago: http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do...5&subs=0&arc=1.