great takeout article

[Mag]

That article should be required reading for anyone entering the track and for every legislator, and every horseman, in a nutshell:

"The track exec-coached player
is almost broke - he has
around $2 left. He has bet in
total, around $24,000. Not too bad at all. He
played for a long time and he contributed a lot to
purses. 15 percent of $24000 is $3600. That is
$3600 to purses and profits.

The professionally coached player, with the 5
percent rebate did better. A whole lot better. That
small rebate helped the player win. He ended up
with over $4000, or $3000 profit. Well, of course
he did, you say. He took some of the tracks profit
and purses, so he had to have made money. He
made money at the expense of us! He took our
$3000 profit for himself!

Not so fast.

Our player, with that small rebate, bet over
$330,000 in those same 150 days of betting.
That's three hundred and thirty thousand dollars!
How about the proceeds to the track and
horse-owners for purses? Well we gave a 5 per
cent rebate, so instead of charging 15 percent we
charged 10 percent. 10 percent of 330,000 is
$33,000. That player, with a little help, contributed
$33,000 to purses instead of the player
we did not help, who contributed $3600 - almost
10 times more.

More importantly, (the winning) player is still
playing. Remember, the first player is broke. The
winning player will be playing for a long, long
time too. And ... he will tell friends."