I enjoyed the article you featured about the age of horse race gamblers getting older and less replacement younger players coming up (Dean Towers, TDN, Aug. 30, 2017).
I grew up in a household where horse racing–both Thoroughbred and harness–was a big part of our recreation. Almost every weekend in the summer we would go to Delaware Park and/or Brandywine Raceway. As children we tended to play in the park area, but enjoyed watching the races. As we got older, we learned about handicapping the races and began betting on them. Both my sister and I became lifelong race fans. However our next generation, as Dean Towers pointed out, is more interested in games available on mobile devices. They especially prefer games where they interact with others and sometimes play as teams. While we have taken them to the races and they seem to enjoy it, they are not regular horse race attendees or bet much. So what's the solution? Somehow we need to make race betting more interactive and encourage team playing. Some small steps have been taken, such as handicapping tournaments, but other betting options need to be developed such as betting while a race is in progress, betting on the time of a race or maybe even how many races a jockey or driver would win on one program.
As I am now one of those older players, I hope to see racing continue to be a popular pastime. Thanks for your continued coverage on various topics related to racing.
–John Chambers, Lansdowne, PA
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