Strategic Problems & Bad Policy

I have always felt the way the Slots at Racetracks directive was handed down last month was bad policy. "Cold turkey" is something we eat, not something we do with a multi-billion dollar program.

There's one thing about bad policy, in my opinion. If you ask a simple question about the core of it, you don't get an answer.

The OLG CEO was asked a simple question:

• In an interview last week, OLG President and CEO Rod Phillips was asked why the Ontario government ended the slots-at-racetrack program with a drop-dead date of March 2013 instead of working with the industry to discuss a possible phase-out or percentage reduction. Phillips' reply: “I don’t have an answer.”

I have felt this was a proper way to implement this policy if the government was going to get rid of racing and slots, come hell or high water: Phase it out over several years, so the industry could prepare itself, sock some cash away; do whatever they want to soften the blow and become self-sustaining.

I was dismayed somewhat when racings leadership wanted to discuss "subsidy versus partnership" or blockades, or protests.I think from day one we should've been asking for a phase out and how to implement that phase out/reduction fairly.

When the OLG CEO cannot answer a simple question about fairness, it's shows weakness. Horse racing, in my opinion, should completely shift their strategy and try and exploit that weakness.