Quote:
Originally Posted by jms62
What mistake was that? What do you think they should've done?
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They completely underestimated it. The bigger tracks stupidly more or less gave away their product for close to nothing and the smaller tracks were naive enough to not think that their fans eventually wouldnt rather bet on the better product rather than the inferior live product.
That is the obvious flaw. What is less obvious is that at the point when it became inevitable that simulcasting was going to change the game, the tracks and horsemen and regulators failed to adopt similar rules and regulations so that the same $ increments were used universally, that stewards were using the same rules in making DQ's, that wagering rules regarding scratches, late scratches, shoeing changes, etc. were basically the same. It would have been easier to do it then than now and a lot of these things still aren't fixed.
In 1985 it didn't matter for the most part what happened in other jurisdictions. Now 90% of the handle coming from places other than the actual racetrack.