Increase Takeout, Decrease Wagering
I can only assume that many of the people who populate the Thoroughbred racing corner of the blogosphere also wager on the product, so it was with some surprise that I surveyed the landscape and found that only Steve Crist mentioned (with appropriate outrage) that New York will increase the takeout on its bets to 1%.
As one commenter on the Cristblog noted, some mucky-mucks cited New York’s “relatively low takeout” compared to other states. This holds true in the WPS pools and possibly in the two-horse wager pools (DD and exacta), but the trifecta, superfecta, and pick N pools were never a bargain at 25% and are even less so at 26%.
To me, an increase in takeout is far more grievous than Breeders’ Cup Ltd. moving the female races to Friday or renaming the Distaff the Ladies Classic. I realize that both changes rubbed people the wrong way, but the change is made in the spirit of trying something new in the hopes of increasing interest.
A raise in takeout, however, is nothing but a spit in the face to the game’s customers, the people who largely conduct the economic engine. I just plain don’t understand why anyone would want to support that kind of treatment by funneling their hard-earned dollars into New York’s wagering pools — especially those with the 26% takeout.
The only thing I like more than horse racing is a good old-fashioned boycott, and I am already looking forward to focusing my summer wagering dollars on Arlington, Ellis, and Del Mar. That is, away from Saratoga.
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