How Does Offshore Wagering Help?

This question was asked at Paceadvantage.com. The answer of course is: "It does not. It pirates the pools."

However, one of the responses there summed it up rather perfectly:

It doesn't.

But...

IMHO, if the industry (horseman's groups and track management ) had their acts together and created an environment that was player friendly instead of the current status quo which borders on hostility towards players -

If horseman's groups and track management allowed ALL ADWs to have access to ALL track signals - instead of denying track signals to ADWs that champion the cause of the player - like the TOC recently did when it denied CA track signals to PTC -

If the takeout on racing (either through lowered takeout or rebates) was competitive with other forms of gambling and the industry used that as a marketing platform so that betting on horses was seen as an attractive proposition instead of the pariah that racing currently is among the generation of 20 somethings who shun it in favor of slots and poker -

If tracks made live streaming video and replays available right from their websites -

If Equibase wasn't constantly trying out new ways to make it more and more difficult for potential new fans to build a racing database -

If those running the racing industry weren't so monopoly minded...

If the industry made any type of concerted effort to figure out customer needs and wants and made customer satisfaction a priority -

Then I submit to you that North American players by the thousands would never be betting offshore in the first place.

And another post that almost always falls on deaf ears with some, thinking regular players are not price-sensitive:

I am a strictly recreational player. I have been playing the horse for over 30 years so I am no novice. I had never really cared about rebates until september of 2003. Then Pinnacle started giving a 7 % rebates to all clients on horse wagers. I was hooked. You see like most horse players I am about sharp enough to hold my own(if I did the work-but since I do not do the work they grind me out a little bit). The problem is that for me like most others without rebates this game is just not beatable(Especially when you have sharper guys betting millions of dollars a year and getting big fat rebates). The days of betting against idiots in the stand are long gone. Once Pinnacle pulled out of the US market I pretty much gave up on the sport(that in combination with the tracks switching to these artificial surfaces which changed the game). But I am back in action now. xxxx offerrs 8% rebates on exotics and the xxxxx offers tremendous value on occasion, between the 2 the game is fun,slightly profitable, and enables me to have a lot more actions, rather than being very tough to beat. So to shed further light, these are my actual numbers over the last 5 years.

330 visits(if you call playing from my living room or business a visit). Net loss on wagers $7400 but net rebates $10,400. So in answer to the point of the post, yes racing doesn't make squat from me (with the exception of occaison pick six plays) but frankly they are not going to make squat from me no matter what, because the game is too tough to beat without rebates(especially when the biggest bettors are getting huge rebates). With rebates it is a ton of fun and slightly profitable. Those are the cold hard facts. Until racing gets there head out of their ***(and brings the take down significantly or enables me to bet california racing with rebates) there will be only one game in town for me and that is offshore. If that avenue is closed then I would stop betting horses period. The game is just too tough without rebates.

There is probably a 500 billion dollar gambling market out there. Getting a slice of that at 10% rakes is better than no slice at all at 20% rakes. I learned at an early age when you multiply something by zero, it's zero and I think that still applies today. I sincerely hope we get our act together soon.