Steve's comments on slots
 

I agree wholeheartly on Steve's comment on slots he expressed on ATR on Tursday. I have said the same thing for years. next on the horizon will be brothels to support racing.

I missed that part of the show but slots are nothing other than welfare for horsemen. I read a couple days ago that Gulf is considering taking 1/2 of their slots out. That didn't last long.

mik/S2S,

It's a bad deal all around and vicious circle..

For those that didn't hear the show, Hour 1 link below compliments of Slew's My Hero's great Archives! (Comments about VLT/ revenue, etc. in first 15 minutes as part of the opening of the show):
http://72.78.215.52:8080/audio/ATRH1_070918.mp3



Slew's Archives for the last 8 days:
http://72.78.215.52:8080/audio/index.htm

What will Maryland do now?

Bye Bye Preakness

;)

i hate to say it but bye-bye preakness is the only way the point will get made in maryland. then the state will scramble to fix things and try to get it back.

If this were only true. Hit a monster pick three and get a tug, what a great concept

they could also have some very interesting giveaway days. forget about lawn chairs or bobbleheads.

I like the bobblehead concept
:)

I think bobbleheads could still be a giveaway ;)

IL state senate agreed to bill to put 3 casinos in Chicago (with all $$ going to highways/mass transit/education) yesterday. CTA paid for by new casino... what will they come up with next?

NOTHING for any of the horse tracks.

slots are such a silly thing to be addressing
 

the people who run racing are knuckleheads. It is 2007 and a sport that does not use Television Media, is addressing it's lack of popularity by installing casinos.


Imagine if the NFL or NBA didn't use television...
- Michael Jordan would not be a household name. -OJ would be in jail:D ...

Here at LS they whine because of no slots. A over used term is , its a band-aide, but that is a very good evaluation. IMO! The state needs to authoriz as many as 6 new racing venues, scattered accros the state. Shorten the live meet at LS and distribute the same purse money over fewer races. This should draw higher quality. While this would reduce the exposier at lonestar of the lower rung horses , it could create a nice pool of entrants for the newer venues while expanding the simocast venues and thus take in more money for horseracing without the percentage loss to any casino profit.Lone Star has visions of becomming a major venue. It will never happen untill they make a change such as this. Slots ar just a trick to build a 5 star hotel at LS. LS is driven by its simo handle. This proves that the money is there with the patron, but the quality attracts the money.Adjusting the take out could even add more. Horsemen can be ther own worst enemy sometimes. They are afraid to add more slices to the pie , not realizing how large that pie is. Slots are not the solution but a tool to reduce impact of horseracing.

I stopped reading where you said the state needs to authorize six new racing venues because I would like for you to tell me where these venues would be located. With racetracks in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, you can honestly come up with six other feasible spots for racetracks in a state that is surrounded by states who have gambling?


NT

Canterbury doesn't have them, but have been trying for 10 years. They have a card room which does help add to purses, and does quite well, but it doesn't do nearly as much as the slots. They might be a band-aid, but I'll give you some points for why they are good.

HORSE RACING UNFORTUNATELY ISN'T A FORM OF GAMBLING THAT'S VERY CONVENIENT FOR PEOPLE. To get a patron to come out and wager, they have to do it when tracks offer live racing. Canterbury has pretty healthy live racing crowds in the summer, but not many of those people bet simulcast. So when there's no live racing, they don't come out. What I'm getting at here, is I think some tracks are legitimately using slots to keep horse racing viable at their tracks, BUT MOSTLY THEY'RE USING AS IT AS ANOTHER WAY TO BECOME PROFITABLE. Because casinos are 24/7/365 operations. If said casino within a horse track is contributing to the horse racing operation properly, then I don't have a problem with it.

From Canterbury's perspective, it's getting to be a lot like Maryland's. They don't have the slots, but Iowa does, and so does Remington Park in Oklahoma (MN and Oklahoma are not exactly next door neighbors, but the 2 tracks share a lot of the same horses). So those tracks are offering bigger purses. Which means horsemen are leaving Canterbury for "greener" oppourtunites at those tracks. Live racing at Canterbury this year was like watching racing at Bay Meadows. Field sizes were noticeably lower, and it's because they don't offer purses that the other tracks offer. This also gives people less incentive to own and breed horses in MN compared to other states (if purses aren't increased).

There's a casino within 3 miles of Canterbury (Indian owned/run) called Mystic Lake, which offers everything short of craps and roulette. Ever since that place has opened, it's been a cash-cow. Canterbury offers it no competition because they have no slots. I see Presque Isle Downs open up, and offer huge purses. I see Louisiana thriving because of it. Remember 3-4 years ago- Delta Friggin' Downs had a million dollar race!

So from what I see of my home-town casino and these other tracks with slots around the country, it's tough for me to see that it's a band-aid. I HATE THAT CASINO GAMING HAS TO PROP UP HORSE RACING, but I don't see anything right now that leads me to believe that it's a band-aid.

In refering to similar smaller venues such as Manor to offer basicly a fair meet 2=3 weeks. Someone already has one in the Lubock/ Ammirillo area. Tyler, SanA ngelo. Texarkana snd the Petroplex area. and somewhere in the Valley. Im not talking about multi-million ffacilities.

I've always said this,and now it is happening,about how the politicians will stop feeding the racing hand to feed itself with the slot money.I expect most tracks with slots will start paying the governments more as times get bad in the near future.Government is a hungry pig that needs to be fed constantly.

Assmusen tried to by the old Trinity Meadows site. Hewould have if the state would assure him of limited dates to race there. This facility is just the type to promote a short , fair type meet.

Good rant, Steve. Slots are no more than a short-term fix......

And as saturation approaches, the term gets shorter and shorter. :rolleyes: