Silver -

In my mind, that's what everyone should be doing. If a company raised prices or otherwise made its product less attractive, you would look elsewhere. Why should betting on horses be any different?

The thing is, it's not happening. The CAWs are all over the exacta pool in NY, but it consistently handles more than the win pool. I was looking at handle at Saratoga this year for a project, and I was flabbergasted at how much money the early Pick-5 handled (almost as much as all other first-race pools combined). Unlike the late Pick-5, it is CAW-infested, the complexity of structuring tickets plays to the strength of the CAWs, and you have no signal regarding where the first-race win odds are going to wind up. Yet bettors are lining up to be slaughtered and then going to social media to complain about the CAWs.