The fundamental problem with tracks is they don't recognize their "prized" customer is as much a puzzle solver, an investor, as he is a gambler.
If horse racing is simply about gambling it can never compete with the cost structure of a casino. But if it's about "investing" in one's own convictions, it becomes a noble enough endeavor to justify the higher "vigs" necessitated by the enormously expensesive overheads that track operations incur.
This is not to say I don't think takeouts should be, or, in fact, must be reduced. But, for myself, I've pretty much stopped going to tracks because I'm tired of being treated like crap, on so many different levels, including the why didn't I find that out before the race level, that the takeout is the last of my worries.
So the fundamental questions track managment have to address are, how do we honor our core customers pursuit? How do we celebrate hanicappers and handicapping? If these questions can be answered, if race tracks can be converted into high energy information emporioums where informed players feel they can obtain an information edge by attending the races, then I think it's still possible to grow the industry in a vibrant healthy manner. But if the industry continues to disrespect their cusomers, to think of their customers as degenerate gamblers rather than savy investors, well, racing will survive, but not with the same structure as we know it now.



Post Edited (09-22-04 11:54)