I had heard a statement earlier that said it was 1BN/yr, but I'm not sure I believe that. The gray-area is that neither the Co-Op or Monarch are under any requirement to disclose information. Daruty was very frank when on with Steve and I learned more about these deals than ever. I think it's a thing that as long as the state gets it's tax on the bet made, whatever goes on behind the scenes is ok. The racing is not occurring in that state, so the racing commission really has no jurisdiction. It's all part of the interstate wagering federal law. In the state's view, it's just like a sales tax.
I think in the Co-Op, some entities could put several grand a day and some might only account for a couple hundred. I would think at Parx it could account for 100K on a Saturday and much more on a day like Preakness. Maybe more.
I know I go to a Parx OTB and the vast majority of traffic is on other tracks. They've probably seen a slight bump in local Parx handle on Saturday and Sunday due to not offering the Monarch tracks, but what I've seen more is that people just don't go and just don't play with them. Monday and Tuesday are mainly unopposed days, so I expect their handle on those days is relatively unchanged.
I'd be interested to see what effect it has had on TVG. Because of the law, many of the affected players can use a TVG account, PABets, which is Harrah's trotter track ADW. In December, there was only a few I knew who had this type of account. There was no need. You could go to the Parx OTB or bet on phone or internet at any track. Now, everybody I know has this account and uses it.
If I was TVG, I'd try to do anything I could to keep those new customers.
I'd imagine the $ input from the Mid-Atlantic consortium is not enough to cripple Monarch that much. It would be nice to have, but we're not going belly up over it. Otherwise this would be over. I'd say Mid-Atl profits more from Monarch than vice versa. Remember the local horsemen are also involved in this. This will trigger a purse decrease and when that appears (which I think it may have) then all bets are off.
|