Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

News & Notes from Around the Ovals.....

December 18, 2007

Slot machines were touted as a way to support horse racing at Philadelphia Park, yet the amount of bets on live and simulcast races has dropped 9 percent since the casino opened, state statistics show.

Total race betting at Philadelphia Park is down $39 million when compared to the same months in 2006, according to records from the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.

Betting on the horses at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs racino in Luzerne County, near Wilkes-Barre, is also down 3 percent — a loss of $3.6 million - compared with the same months in 2006, according to the state.

This is not a national trend. Across the country, most racetracks saw a slight increase in horse betting, according to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Racing in the state of Delaware also jumped significantly when slots were added to the tracks there in 1995 though it has declined the past seven years, records show.

At Philadelphia Park this week, racing fans attributed the drop-off to conditions in the grandstands. Racing fans are shuffled to the fifth floor while the bottom two floors are packed with slot machines.

You can't get a racing form or place a bet on the races except on the top floors, fans said. The president of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Racing Association, Michael Ballezzi, has called conditions at the track “unacceptable.”

“We used to have the entire facility to ourselves and now we're cramped up here on the fifth floor,” said racing fan Carl Siegel, though there was plenty of room on the racing floor Wednesday morning.

Hundreds of seats were empty in the bar areas and bleacher seating that afternoon. “People don't need to come here,” the Philadelphian added. “If you don't make it a nice experience for fans, they won't come back.”

Harry Gaskill of Morrisville was far more blunt.

“They got cheap with us up here,” he said. “They thought they could shuffle us up to the fifth floor and offer all the perks to the slots players,” he said. Slot machines were legalized at Delaware racetracks in late 1995 and the result was much different.

Betting on races in Delaware jumped 30 percent — or $54 million — between 1995 and 1996, according to the Delaware Horse Racing Commission. Betting on the races went from $179 million in 1995 and peaked at $384 million in 2000.

In more recent years, though, those numbers have fallen. Wagers dropped to $350 million in 2003 and $297 million last year, according to the DHRC.

That drop in Delaware coincides with the construction of casinos in West Virginia, said Eric Wing, spokesman for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

“Racing in Delaware was never in a poorer state than just before they got the slots,” Wing said. “That may be why the turnaround was so drastic.”

It's been an “overall good year” for the racetracks, Wing added. “There's no national trend to explain what's happening at Philadelphia Park.”

The Courier Times was also unsuccessful in reaching Philadelphia Park Racing Director Sal Sinatra for comment after calls and e-mails to his office over a period of two weeks.

Philadelphia Park has increased prizes on races hoping to draw better horses, breeders and more racing fans to the track. During a November presentation to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, Greenwood Gaming CEO Robert Green said Philadelphia Park purses could soon be “the highest in the nation.”

“The total annual purses on races for 2006 was about $30 million,” he said. “In 2007, that total number will double to $63 million.”

The Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park made history this year with the first $1 million purse in the Keystone State. Of the famous Triple Crown races in the United States, the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes each had a $1 million purse. The Kentucky Derby had a $2 million purse.

“Work has already commenced on the $12 million commitment to the barn and dormitory improvements [in the backstretch] and this is $5 million more than was mandated by the state,” Green had said.

Casino Philadelphia Park/Pocono Downs
Jan.-Oct. 2006 $420,043,066 $108,752,681
Jan.-Oct. 2007 $380,579,871 $105,141,081
Loss -$39,463,195 -$3,611,600~~~Change -9.4 percent -3 percent
Source: Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission records of total wagers on live races and simulcast race betting at the facilities.

Delaware Horse Wagering Numbers have Increased after
Slots were legalized in December 1995
1995 $179,855,985 2001 $377,040,226
1996 $233,010,731 2002 $371,584,512
1997 $300,757,017 2003 $350,794,188
1998 $319,671,984 2004 $320,854,792
1999 $372,860,465 2005 $305,668,015
2000 $384,215,273 2006 $297,423,265
Source: Delaware Horse Racing Commission