Support grows for Belmont slot machines

Originally Posted by SentToStud

What will it be like? Just as you said. Competition. Some tracks make it, others go bust. Why should horse racing be immunized with slots? And why should horse racing benefit? No good reason. Unfair competition? Bullsh.t. There's competition in every industry. Why should there be new racetracks popping up just to appease horseowners? Plenty of tracks are surviving without slot machines and some are doing very well. Others are failing. So what? How's that different from how it has always been?

Slot machines in NY tracks is an absurd notion. What for? They already have the highest purse structure within 3000 miles. They're not going to attract better horses. Just taxing people more and paying inflated purses to the same horses.

If a racetrack can't make it, put up a mall. Or condos. The world will go on.

Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet? How many fingers am I holding up?

Slots will bring more old people to the track. [/thread]

[Slewbopper]

Belmont is huge. I think they should install a full fledged casino on the ground floor, complete with shops and real restaurants and build a 2000 room hotel where the LIRR stop is, at the 1/4 pole with all rooms facing the track. There is still plenty of room for horse racing on the upper floors. For BC day they can install the bleachers on the apron, and for the Belmont they can open the infield like they do at churchill and Pimlico.

[Danzig]

i know i go to the track to spend money (and hopefully win some) and i never manage to find anything i want to buy in what passes for a shop at the tracks i've been to.

[Danzig]

i think they need to advertise big payouts and big carryovers ala powerball and its billboards. quit pretending gambling isn't a part of the sport, they need to quit trying to just play horse racing off as pageantry and beauty. come here, win big! they needed to play up the folks that hit the big pick 6 with a couple bucks a few months ago. let people know that they have a chance to win with something using more than just random luck and picking the right video poker machine. read the form, make an educated (maybe) guess. or just use your lucky numbers!

Originally Posted by Danzig

they'd have been shooed away by then, but they do come and peek sometimes...i usually keep my finger on the mouse wheel just in case, and thankfully i'm a fast reader and catch stuff (hopefully) before they do. of course they probably see/hear worse on the bus and at school!

Heck they've probably been to a rainbow party by now!

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Pillow Pants

Heck they've probably been to a rainbow party by now!

....don't know what that is, but hopefully not! can imagine it's not a good thing since it's included in this conversation!

you forget, we live in the boonies. the high light of most kids around here is hanging out in the church parking lot after the football game.

[PSH]

After a absence of 25 years i returned to Belmont this past Friday (October 5th) and was amazed at how great the grand old race track looked. I was also amazed at how empty she was with a sprinkling of players for a terrible Friday card that started out with a field of 4 of which there was an entry....

It was strange in a way to be there and i could only think what a waste of a beautiful race track and huge space.... Something needs to be done and slots are an obvious answer to generate additional funds for the track and the owners...... I believe the only obstacle would be some of the residents in Floral Park......

It was amazing after almost 20 plus years of not being at Saratoga to see the transformation from an almost dead track (yes Saratoga was struggling) to what it has become today and on the opposite end at Belmont to a dying track today as far as attendence....

PSH