Thursday, April 22, 2010

How Do They Get Away With It?

From a blog reader and bettor "What bothers me is a $10,000 payoff is being reported as 100,000 and the vast majority of horseplayers believe it is actually paying $100,000. I am trying to eliminate the posting of bull sh** payouts!"

We see it constantly in racing. A super pool has $10,000 and it is hit for a dime, so the payoffs are reported as a "$100,000" winner.

In fact, a release issued here, reported "A massive Pick 4 payout of $81,057.75 on Friday night highlighted this past week of racing at Woodbine Racetrack."

They have not had $81,000 in a pick 4 pool since - I don't even know that they ever had. The money up for grabs in this specific pool was (after takeout) about $17,000.

Would a lottery, who has $1 ticket increments be able to report a payoff for 50 cents at double the lottery pool? I doubt it. I agree with the reader that racing should change this disingenuous practice. If you have to hoodwink people to get them in the door, your business is not worth the paper you wrote the press release on.

1 comment:

That Blog Guy said...

The tracks should not deceive people but part of the problem is the multiple levels of minimum bets on the various exotics (and even straight wagers). I for one, have said they should report Superfectas at a $1 base instead of a dime because often a dime payoff is pitiful; sometimes less than $20.00.

What should happen is tracks should be required to report payoffs based on a dollar. If a wager is not hit at the base rate, then show the reduced amount wagered.

Think about it. If someone saw they won $10,000 on a dime, people will be a running.

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