With racing's temporary opportunity as the only game in town, the TDN's Katie Ritz took a poll of some industry insiders known to like a good bet and asked them: what is one simple way that tracks could make betting more friendly for existing horseplayers and/or more effective at bringing in new players? As you'll see, none of them could stop at just one.
ZOE CADMAN
As an avid racing fan first and foremost, and a gambler second, I truly believe we need to make things just a bit easier for everyone involved. Here's my list of the things I feel we need to move forward with. Note, some tracks have already implements some of these ideas.
1. Free parking and admission (Santa Anita offers free parking and admission on weekdays).
2. Free programs.
3. Less time between races. The average person wants action and gets bored easily.
4. Make it more kid friendly. Santa Anita does a great job of this with the park in the infield, but it's a bit too far from the action. The best example I have was the old Party in the Park at Arlington. Parents could gamble and have a beer.
5. Dollar beer days are massively popular. Perhaps give back $2 win tickets for horses in the upcoming race. Obviously not with every beer, but encourage these folks to bet.
6. Better policing of races and consistency with the stewards. Have a camera in the steward's room like they do in Europe. The betting public likes to feel informed.
7. More information. Look at Hong Kong: if a horse doesn't eat, it's written about in the paper. The same goes for transparency from trainers, which leads to the bigger question of when are we going to have one governing body. With this, we should have the same rules for each state. If a trainer has trouble following along from state to state, how are gamblers ever going to have a chance?
8. Make it fun. Have more night racing. Twilight racing is a big hit. Send buses to pick up commuters from trains, bring them in, feed them and entertain them. We must do more.
9. A dear friend of mine is a gambler who lives in Vegas. He's been saying for years that we should have a “match race Friday.” Now, I'm not a fan of match racing, let it be said. I feel it is very hard on the horses, but perhaps there are ways around this. His idea is to have 12 races all held 10 minutes apart. With action every 10 minutes, no one gets bored. And with limited field sizes, this may be the answer. Just a thought.
10. Invite people in. This is popular at Santa Anita with barn tours and breakfast. Saratoga does the same thing. Make people think they have the inside scoop. Open the gates. Let them in the barns so they can pet a horse and see that we love our horses.
11. Not sure how you could police this, but perhaps new gamblers could get a break on the takeout.
Much of what I have written is already going on in some form, but we need more of it in order to survive. As far as takeout, maybe tracks for one day per meet or even one day per month could scrap takeout all together. I'm guessing handle would double for that particular day. They could even have a day devoted to takeout going to aftercare.
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