Crist:
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On the contrary, every single long-term experiment with takeout reduction has shown that it increases handle, participation, and customer satisfaction – not necessarily because players are consciously aware of higher returns, but because they find themselves with a bit more money on hand that they reinvest over and over. They stay in action longer, and they receive more positive reinforcement to keep playing the game because their money seems to last longer and go farther.
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There have been some stunningly disappointing takeout reductions. When Ellis Park introduced a 4% Pick-4 in 2007, the response was extremely underwhelming. Pools rose briefly to a "whopping" $60K, but then settled into the $25-$40K range. My own modest bets represented 0.5% of the entire Ellis Pick-4 bets that summer.
Here's something I wrote in this thread on 8/1/07:
http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15567
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...today's pool was an embarrassing $25,000. I say "embarrassing", because I find it embarrassing that the best bet in horseracing can only attract $25,053 worth of bets. Hell, my bet was 1/70th of the entire pool! Aren't there at least a couple hundred horseplayers in the entire country willing to pump some money into this pool?
Is any track going to think about lowering take when Ellis draws a whopping 25,000 with it's 4%?
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About the same time, Laurel ran a 10-day meet with reduced takeout. 10% for WPS. A drf article said there was no increase in handle:
http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16373
--Dunbar