Funny indeed, in the sense that the presentations expose the peculiar logic of racetrack executives. As Boscar & BitPlayer pt out, when all is said & done Berube at Tam shut off the two rebate shops because they won money in 2003. The way Berube sees things, it's okay to win a few bets, but if & only if the winner then proceeds to "churn" his or her winnings back into the pools at the industry avg of 7 times.

A single yr doesn't necessarily prove anything, & my reading leads me to believe that more often the complaint is the one voiced by Mitchell of WO, namely that rebate players are losing less than others. As stated in JB's letter, one of the arguments against doing business with bookmakers is the possibility that they will quit taking your action if you are too successful. Tampa(& maybe FG & Oak) demonstates that bookmakers are not the only ones willing to do so, which is not the same as saying that batch wagering is fair to the avg bettor. It's not, for reasons which have already been alluded to & a host of others which deserve separate consideration.

Another oft-repeated argument of those in favor of rebates is that players are price sensitive. If that's true, then what explains the fact that Tam, whose outrageous takeout rates are 18.9% for st wagers, 22.5% for the dd,e&qui, & 25.9% for everything else, has already experienced a $40 million increase in handle this yr?

Of course, if you buy into Berube's absurd logic, Tam in effect "reduced" its takeout w/o changing these percentages when he shut off the 2 rebate shops. As idiotic as that sounds, it pales in comparison to Mitchell's argument that lowering the take hurts the avg bettor because he would win more, which he would then proceed to churn & lose, leaving him worse off than he would have been if he had lost his money in the 1st place.

I agree with both players & owners(& by extension horsemen) when they argue that they have been & are getting screwed. The way I see it, these presentations offer some interesting insights in the mindset of those who are responsible for administering the screwing.