Dave is actually a pretty good guy, for a Raggie (at least the last time I talked to him, which is years ago).

June 98-- I brought a group of friends to the Belmont, only way they could sit us together was at a table without a view of the track. Dave volunteered to give me his seats to watch the race, so I got to watch VG win "live".

I have to say, the statements from the track operators are stunning in showing their lack of understanding of the situation. It's like the old vaudeville joke about a guy selling apples for $1,000-- "but I only have to sell one". They don't seem to grasp that a)if they give rebates they'll have a couple of points more than the rebate houses to play with, the ones that represent the rebate houses' profits, b) the big players aren't going to buy $1,000 apples, so stopping rebates will either stop them from betting or send them to Betfair or other non-parimutuel sites, and c) giving rebates themselves will increase handle. The reason NYRA and the others haven't shown big increases after cutting the takeouts is that they did it at the same time the rebate houses were pulling in the big bettors, who were getting even more there-- try bringing the takeout rates back to where they were and see what happens.



TGJB