The Associated Press recently ran a story on racino subsidies (our previous posts on the subject) for the racing industry, explaining how these subsidies translate to corporate welfare for an inexorably declining industry. (This decline has two root causes: competition…
Horseracing, as presently practiced in America, is a dying industry. All the economic indicators bear this out: Number of races, racedates, starters per race, and, of course, total handle have been in steady decline for years. (The harness industry is…
The Paulick Report (11/7) says that Oaklawn Park has received a record number of stall applications for the upcoming meet (Jan 9th). The reason: a record amount of available purse money ($23 million). On the surface, all seems rosy in…
“The only reason it’s [Aqueduct Racetrack] in business is because of the casino.” (horseplayer “Harry the Horse,” Gothamist) Writer Max Rivlin-Nadler sets the scene on Aqueduct’s Opening Day (Oct 29th): “Aqueduct, with its wooden seats, tobacco-stained walls, and cavernous feel,…
What happens when the corporate welfare you’ve been receiving for some 20 years is no longer enough? We may be finding out in West Virginia where that state’s two Thoroughbred tracks, citing a lack of adequate purse money, are dropping…
It is such a crucial point that it bears repeating again and again and again: Without the corporate welfare euphemistically referred to as racino gaming, much of horseracing in the United States – including practically all of harness racing –…
For some who’ve long been immersed in the horseracing culture, objectivity has all but vanished. As the Suffolk Downs era draws to an end, Ray Paulick offers this: “It took the sweat and hard work of more than 4,000 workers…
This much we know: Suffolk Downs, the sole remaining Thoroughbred track in all of New England, is dying, its product – like that of the majority of tracks in this country – no longer viable. (WBUR: “Chip Tuttle, the racetrack’s…
What most NY citizens do not know, by design, is that Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs), or slots, directly subsidize the state’s racing industry. Here’s how it works: As a condition for securing VLT licenses, track owners are required to continue…
Although I’d rather not keep hammering an issue that the average person cares (and knows) little about, the racino question is simply too important to ignore. Here is the indisputable fact: While some races (TC, BC) and some meets (Saratgoa)…
Just to be clear, again, funneling a portion of racino slots money into purses and breeding is corporate welfare. Sure, the horse people call it a “state-business partnership.” But as the saying goes, it is what it is, and here…
Sunday’s Akron Beacon Journal tells an all-too-familiar tale (New York, West Virginia, Indiana, etc.) of a “drying up” racing industry being propped by the corporate welfare that is euphemistically referred to as a “state-business partnership.” It goes something like this:…
