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Thursday, August 28, 2008

How About Uniform Payout Standards Throughout The Racing Industry?

By Cangamble

Track payouts are just another example to show how disconnected the racing jurisdictions are to each other. How do we expect universal drug laws from an industry that can't even set payout standards?

What do I mean by payout standards?

Just peruse the results of various racetracks and try to find some consistency when it comes to exotic payouts.

Note: Base does not mean minimum bet, it means how the payoff is shown on Equibase and at ADWs.

Woodbine uses $1 base for Pick 3's, Pick 4's, and Supers, while using a $2 base price for triactors.

Ellis Park and Saratoga use a $2 base for all exotics.

Monmouth uses a $1 base price for all exotics (excluding doubles and exactors) except for their Pick 5 which uses a $0.50 base.

Del Mar (California main circuit) uses a $1 base for most exotics, including exactors (almost every other track uses a $2 base for exactors), except they use a $2 base for doubles, quinellas, and the Pick 6.

Mountaineer uses a $2 base for everything. But they call exactors "perfectas" (there has to be a Pulp Fiction joke in there somewhere).

I think I'll stop here. I've made my point.

The main problem I have with all this is when I view probable payoffs or results that don't have the base amount next to it. And this happens a lot. I have to take an educated guess many times, and sometimes I'm wrong, and even if I'm right, it sometimes needlessly hurts my brain.

Maybe HANA can get the industry to at least fix this.

Then maybe we can get uniform drug rules too, and maybe I'll win a giant lottery too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Betcha they never thought of just posting the odds paid for each wager.

Anonymous said...

How about uniform wagering formats throughout the racing industry?

Some racetracks have running doubles and pick threes, others don't; some have doubles only on the third or sixth race, others don't; some have pick threes and fours starting randomly throughout the race card, others don't; some offer a pick six, others don't; some have dollar doubles, pick threes, et cetera, others require two-dollar wagers.

A bettor has to commit to memory the various wagering options offered by various racetracks. Visualize how a novice reacts.

And to further aggravate bettors, no two racetracks, it seems, display scratches the same way; some provide the scratches fast and efficiently, while others are excruciatingly slow. Imagine the impact on a novice.

What casual bettor is going to become a frequent bettor under such circumstances? At all simulcast sites, chaos runs rampant day-in and day-out.

The industry is rudderless, with each racetrack its own fiefdom. No central authority exists to create and demand uniformity.