I mostly agree with your take, the linked article itself seems a little missleading, claiming that you could make money by placing losing bets. As far as if th

I mostly agree with your take, the linked article itself seems a little missleading, claiming that you could make money by placing losing bets. As far as if the regular punter is getting screwed, I'm not so sure. They certainly aren't getting as good of a deal as the professional punters are getting. However, if the punter feels like they have some special insight into the race and the predictive performance of the horses, then they stand to win much more money by having the professionals put money into the pool.