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#1
10-23-2015, 09:25 PM
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Pillaging of PA Racing
The Philly News Media is awash in stories of the end of PA Racing and I think people have to understand some things.
When we put the slots law through it only would pass if it included provisions for the Horse Industry. The legislature and public had no appetite for gambling unless it helped horse racing. Horse racing, at the time, had over 26,000 full time employees and we thought about 110,000 people derived all or part of their income from the racing industry. This included feed merchants, farm owners, hay farmers. etc. Since then, the tracks and the horsemen's associations have done little to promote racing in PA. They are the cause, and recipients of the obscene takeout rates in PA. I was always told the state was the reason for the 30% trifecta takeout rate. I asked my State Rep. and he found out the state takes no more than 2.5% of any bet in PA at the track. The other 27.5% has a 0.5% takeout for the Breeders and the rest is split by the track and horsemens. The average handle at PARX is under $200,000 on-track on the weekends, sometimes as low at $70,000. The off-track is usually less than a million. The industry started to deteriorate under Gov. Ed Rendell. We had a good state drug testing lab system in PA. They were all state employees and had been doing it for years. Rendell was a Univ of Penn (a private school) grad and decided we needed to let them do the drug testing. He laid off all the state workers and closed the labs and outsourced it to U of P (of Barbaro fame). To pay for this he took the breeder's portion of the handle for "administrative" costs. This basically ended any breeder money from the handle. On top of that Rendell appointed Corinne Sweeney, head of the U of Penn Vet School to the racing commission. She's still there and they funnel millions each year to the U of Penn for drug testing. No conflict there. Then Corbett gets in a Governor and says he won't raise taxes. However, he's stuck with the mess Rendell made and can't make ends meet. He goes to the RHDV (Race Horse Development Fund) which is the money that comes from slots that goes to the breeder's. He takes money, millions, each year he is in office. Meanwhile, people had bought farms in PA to take advantage of the PA Breeder's program. All of a sudden, the rules are changed. This money might not be there. Eventually, they get out. So that is where we are now. Foals are down 24% from last year. Probably close to 100% from when the slots went through. Nobody trusts the politicians. Horses take years, you need commitment and certainty. It's an awful situation. It was all preventable. Who are the culprits ? #1 is the politicians. They could have helped build an already existing industry that would have provided them with revenue for years and years. Instead they pillaged it for short-term gain. The other are the tracks and horsemen. anymore, they are synonomous. They share in the lavish takeouts and reduced handle. All the tracks in PA are casino operators and despise racing. It costs too much. It's cheaper to give a guy a seat at a machine. Unfortunately, I see the end near. It didn't have to be that way. 
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#2
10-23-2015, 09:40 PM
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Push for gambling "expansion" while banning fantasy and crippling racing. The powers that be in this state are a joke. Its all about state monopolies in pa
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#3
10-24-2015, 07:38 AM
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On that note, I just read in the paper yesterday that Parx officials announced a casino expansion. 700 new slot machines and Shaquille O'Neal's "Shaq Blackjack" will adorn the new casino expansion. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.
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#4
10-24-2015, 09:14 AM
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Quote:
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Just more nebulous nonsense from BBB
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