Saturday, 3 October 2009
Horse Racing And Gambling
It is amazing! Give me a break. He never intended to close the race track. He just wanted leverage to help pass expanded gambling. Instead of looking for some magical elixir he should make adjustments to his business model. He reduced the summer meet and more people showed up. Imagine that? All this tells me is that he had over saturated the market and just needed to pull back some to get good attendance.Ellis Park owner Ron Geary said Tuesday that he plans to have racing at the Henderson track next year, but he hasn’t decided how many days to race.
“We’re going to fill out an application and then it’s in the hands of the (Kentucky Horse Racing) Commission,” he said after a special commission meeting.
Geary said he couldn’t say yet how many dates he would seek because “we still have some more meetings and some more bases to touch.”....
....Earlier this year Geary had said Ellis would close after this summer's meet if the legislature didn't approve video lottery terminals at tracks, citing competition from tracks that use expanded gambling to supplement purses.
Geary later softened that stance, leaving open the possibility of racing in 2010, after having better-than-expected results for a reduced summer
meet – although he said he still lost money.
Oh yeah, all this business about him losing money is nonsense. If he were truly "losing" money then he wouldn't keep the track open out of the goodness of his heart. He didn't accumulate all of his wealth by being stupid. He wasn't the only track complaining. Churchill Downs was just as whiny about their attendance. You know how they solved the problem. Put in lights and started racing at night
The track said Monday that it will take bids to buy permanent lights — after using temporary lighting to draw nearly 90,000 race fans over three nights this year, two in June and July 2. The final crowd of 33,481 was the largest in the track’s modern history outside of a Kentucky Derby or Oaks day or the Breeders’ Cup.Now they are looking to make them permanent. Is the turnout a surprise? People can't get off during the day to go to the track. But they are available at night. Guess what? Churchill Downs opened at night and people turned out in record numbers. Amazing what a good business move that doesn't rely on fabled magic potions can do to the bottom line. This is what competition in a free market does. It causes people to adjust their strategies. All gambling would have done was bought them some time and allowed them continue operating under old business models. But like anything else, the short term government bonanza would not have helped the horse industry as much as having to compete in the free market. Now they can adjust to the consumers needs and wants instead of being bailed out by the government. (We see how well that model has worked in Michigan)
But the horse industry wasn't the only group whining. Beshear was whining as well. He claimed we had to have the revenue associated with gambling. Well it turns out that the revenue might not be as solid as previously supposed. States across the U.S. are seeing a huge drop in revenue from legalized gambling. The down turn in the economy and a saturation of the gambling market can have that effect. The story just illustrates the fact that gambling would not have "saved" government after all.
The bottom line is we shouldn't look to magic bullets to solve all that ails our state. We need to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work necessary to survive this downturn in the economy. If we do that then we will find ourselves well placed for next era of growth.
