Jay Bergman on drf.com wrote an excellent blog entry on how racetracks in New York have abandoned racing once they got slots and encourages the state to make sure the 'race' in racino is restored. Bergman cites a couple of examples on how racinos have abandoned racing amongst which there is:
Fast-forward to 2012 and what we see from Yonkers is public relations manager Clare Galterio in numerous advertisements during the racing simulcast. Galterio’s motivation appears to be to draw horseplayers to the lucrative rewards being given to slot players in their Empire City Casino.
So while racetracks have implied to the state that there is little synergy between the horseplayer and the slot player, they have aggressively turned to pull the horseplayer over to the slot side.
It was also in 2007 when Galterio suggested that a players reward system was being worked on to benefit horseplayers as well as slot players. More than five years later there is still no program in place for those who bet the ponies at Yonkers.
Coincidence?
While Bergman does put most of the blame on track operators, he doesn't put all the responsibility on the backs of track operators. Bergman states, "If racetracks are seeking the exclusive right to expand their slot operations into casinos without competition from stand-alone casinos, they should be forced to invest in the racing business along with their horsemen". This is something I have been saying for ages, tracks have benefited from slots because they have racing so they should be required to invest in their legacy business but so should horsemen who quite honestly, have been racing for obscene amounts of money when compared to handle. "We supply the horses" or "We put on the show" is no longer an excuse to require tracks alone to invest in making racing more popular.
I do have one issue with Bergman's column in that he issues a blanket indictment of all racetracks in New York for not trying to grow the racing side of the business. For example, Bergman states:
So while racetracks have implied to the state that there is little synergy between the horseplayer and the slot player, they have aggressively turned to pull the horseplayer over to the slot side.
I have no doubt all racetracks are trying to get horseplayers to gamble on slot machines but there are at least two tracks (Tioga and Vernon Downs) which are doing whatever they can to get slot players over to the racing side as well. To paint all the tracks in one broad stroke is unfair.
Bergman's column is a must read. I encourage everyone to read it.
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