Quote:
Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane
In a 10 horse field for every winning wager there are 9 losing wagers. There is no difference.
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Not so sure about that. Let's say there's a three horse field (and although this example doesn't create a fractional payout, assume that it does, so there's breakage).
First scenario: I bet $10 on horse one, you bet $10 on horse two, another guy bets $10 on horse three. Horse one wins, so I get $30. The winner's share of the pool is 100%. The track takes breakage on one winning bet.
Second scenario: I bet $5 on horses one and two, you bet $5 on horses one and three, other guy bets $5 on horses two and three. Horse one wins, you and I get $15 each. Each winner's share of the pool is 50%. But the track gets to take breakage on two winning bets instead of one.
In the second scenario, the payout is diminished for each winner, even though the amount wagered by each bettor ($10) is the same as in the first scenario. The track, on the other hand, potentially takes more in the second scenario because breakage (unlike the track's takeout, which is the same percentage no matter how many wagers are made) is taken whenever a payout includes cents below a certain threshold. For example, if the track pays to the dime, and there's one winning payout of $2.18, the track takes the 8 cents. But if there's two winning payouts, each paying $1.09, the track takes 18 cents.