This may sound like a pro-Magna post in the context of the recent NYRA-Magna thread, but that's not my intent. (I figured out Magna was bad news when they hired Garth Drabinsky as a consultant post-Livent.)

Based on the loyalties of NYRA customers expressed in the thread and NYRA's lowered takeout, one might expect NYRA to be doing well, but its financial woes are well-chronicled in the thread.

I've read about the loss of OTB handle when OTB started to take more competing signals, but it strikes me that NYRA's problems began before that.

Is it that nobody (without slots) can make money running racetracks these days?

Does NYRA pay some exorbitant sum to New York State?

Are horseplayers really not that takeout-sensitive when deciding what track(s) to play (see Calder)?

Is it that simulcast facilities and account wagering companies now give bettors more alternative tracks to play? (For example, I know that Del Mar stopped offering the full card from Saratoga last summer so that they could (under the out-of-state-races limit) offer more races from other tracks later in the day.)