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http://www.saratogian.com
Hopefully, the big risk is worth it
The Saratogian
With the opening of Saratoga Race Course's thoroughbred season three days away, changes are afoot designed to make it easier for people to gamble.
What remains to be seen is whether those changes will turn out to be good bets for the track and everyone involved in horse racing.
The relatively minor change is the introduction of Lottery tickets for sale at the track. This is good for one entity: the state.
Every dollar invested in a Lottery ticket is one that might have gone instead to bet on a horse. No one can prove otherwise. Nevertheless, the state should publicly report its revenue from Lottery ticket sales at the track.
Any correlation between the amount bet at the track and the sale of lottery tickets will be impossible to discern because of the much more significant change about to unfold: For the first time ever, people will be able to go to Saratoga Gaming and Racing to watch and bet on Saratoga Race Course's simulcast races.
Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, the combination harness track and video gaming hall, offers free parking, free admission and air-conditioned shelter, all a stone's throw from Saratoga Race Course.
Will this draw people? Absolutely.
Will it boost betting? The Raceway is betting it will, although it won't say how much it paid the New York Racing Association for simulcast privileges.
Will it hurt attendance at Saratoga Race Course and ultimately reduce total revenue and shrink public interest in being at the track? That's the gamble.
For decades the two horse racing tracks in Saratoga Springs were blocks away but worlds apart.
In its heyday, the harness track drew thousands of fans almost year-round. During the summer, it was common for people to spend the afternoon at the 'flats' -- Saratoga Race Course's thoroughbred track -- and the evening at Saratoga Raceway rooting on the harness drivers. But the tracks remained two distinct, unrelated operations, except for the sharing of barn space.
Over the years, the simulcast races at the harness track became at least as popular as the live harness races, if not moreso. The harness track tried, without success, to add the flat track's signal to its simulcast lineup.
Now the harness track is experiencing a comeback with the addition of video gaming, whose revenue has enabled the track to boost the quality of the races. And the introduction of simulcast races from Saratoga Race Course has the potential to be huge for the harness track, whose live races don't begin until after the flats are over.
The hope, which we share, is that this will be a win for everyone: that the simulcast betting at the harness track will be by people who wouldn't have gone to the thoroughbred track that day. The hope is that this will be new money, coming from people enticed to take advantage of the quick, cheap and easy way to place a bet and watch a race on TV.
It's an irresistible one-year experiment. You can bet that everyone will be watching and counting what this means to the bottom line -- and the fan base -- at Saratoga Race Course
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