Saratoga Handle And Att Decline

[jms62]

Originally Posted by randallscott35

If treading water is your goal then do a victory lap. The numbers are lower in daily handle than they were 12 years ago, even at Saratoga. The objective is to grow the pie. If you are a business with the same revenues as 12 years ago, you aren't happy. To say the numbers are meaningless is....Podunk tracks will be the first to go. All the slots in the world won't save handle as pols can easily redirect cash away from racing when they want to....There is now a casino around every corner in the US. There is competition for every gambling dollar (and many are hurting) that people have....Yes the fact that handle has declined most everywhere is obvious....except that Las Vegas is at a new high in terms of visitors this year. And car sales are back to 2007 levels, etc....things are getting better. It just isn't translating to racing....What to do to fix it? That's it. If it doesn't matter then let's not publish the numbers at all.

New High in terms of visitors translates into what exactly? Six month revenue for Las Vegas is up slightly HOWEVER June and July numbers are down pretty significantly. I would think that Saratoga's July Aug numbers would compare favorably in terms of pct decrease. So what do all those extra visitors mean exactly or were you just assuming we are all to lazy to look beneath the fluff of increased visitors. Gambling in general is a Very mature industry and actually racing is holding its own considering all the outlets available to attract gaming dollars.

Racing's bigger problems IMO are the watered down payouts due to .50 P4 and Dime supers. Impossible to show a profit with $100 P4 payouts being the norm.. Just look at our selections forum. No One showed a profit playing Pick 4's during Saratoga and it wasn't because they weren't hitting them. A few years ago when P4's were at a buck you hit 3 or 4 and were able to show a profit for the meet. That isnt happening anymore but I am in the minority in my feelings for the .50 P4 and dime supers.

http://gaming.unlv.edu/reports/6_month_NV.pdf