http://www.drf.com/news/steven-crist-nyra-should-look-adding-wagering-menu-lowering-takeout
Stevem Crist
If you’ve been holding your breath waiting for anything about playing the horses in New York to change for the better, it’s time to exhale before you turn any bluer. The lesson from Thursday’s fourth meeting of the new New York Racing Association Reorganization Board was that things are moving even more slowly than anyone expected, and matters of genuine concern to actual customers seem to be falling further and further down the agenda.
No one thought that addressing major conceptual issues involving the future of New York racing was going to be a quick or easy task, but there seems to be a growing disconnect between that big picture and the ongoing operation of the racing game.
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Players would, for example, welcome the addition of a low-minimum, low-takeout pick-five bet to the daily betting menu, a proposal made more than a year ago by former NYRA executives that has languished due to inattention rather than anyone’s objection to the idea. These kinds of bets have worked well at almost every track where they have been tried, generating new revenue and making customers feel that their concerns about affordability and takeout are being heard.
In the days before the state takeover, it was a grind to get something like a new bet approved in a different and dysfunctional political landscape. The once-powerful OTBs opposed any bet with a lower takeout, regulators stalled implementation with arcane concerns, and approvals were withheld month after month.
One of the benefits of the new political order was supposed to be that since the state was running NYRA, those roadblocks would disappear. Now, however, with no one at NYRA championing such changes and a board whose myriad committees don’t even include one on wagering, no one is even trying to make these changes.
More: http://www.drf.com/news/steven-crist-nyra-should-look-adding-wagering-menu-lowering-takeout