2 ms·
why would the track even care? ... why would they care what happens off track, to someone else's betting operation? The track exists, more or less, because of
by dfxm12 3y ago
why would the track even care? ... why would they care what happens off track, to someone else's betting operation?
The track exists, more or less, because of betting, and not just at the track. At least someone sees it as a threat to betting: "[Barry Orr, Betfair’s head of racing PR] worries that the imbalance in information across different bettors could lead to the demise of gambling on horse racing." If this is a legitimate concern, then it is in the track's best interest to make people think everyone has equal info, or else people will stop betting: "Martin Hughes, a longtime gambler based in the northeast of England who is a member of the Horseracing Bettors’ Forum, a voluntary body of gamblers, “I more or less stopped betting, because I'm so far behind it is pointless, really.”"
Rather than surveilling the track for violators, can't they stop taking bets prior to the start of the race?
Well, that would make them less money.
- justin66 3y agoThis is interesting. More questions. (from someone who obviously doesn't know about this stuff) > The track exists, more or less, because of betting, and not just at the track. Does the track hosting the race get a cut of OTB operations or sell bookies who are working remotely a data feed? So what we're really talking about is the track's CCTV having to compete with some random person's cell phone video or drone video, all of which might be streaming to a casino in Vegas or something? It seems like that Vegas casino which is hosting gamblers and taking bets also has an incentive to kick somebody out if they see that they're looking at a remote data stream and placing bets, rather than looking at the casino's televisions or whatever. Does that happen? >> Rather than surveilling the track for violators, can't they stop taking bets prior to the start of the race? > Well, that would make them less money. This is the part I don't get. If people are betting in real time during the race, isn't the human bookie a terrible bottleneck in the observe race/adjust odds/take new bets loop the bookie is engaged in? (even if he's just pushing a few buttons on a computer as quickly as possible) I can see how people would want to game this system.