Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Gaming Summit: Participants Practice Pragmatism
TARRYTOWN, NY, June 22, 2010--Today, the State Racing and Wagering Board will deal with various issues on its monthly agenda, many of which are administrative in dealing with vis the tracks and OTBs within the state.
Of interest to horseplayers and horsemen is consideration of adopting new rules dealing with coupled entries, a proposed change to the harness sulky rule, and a request by Catskill Regional OTB re: Internet account wagering.
There will also be a ruling on the use of cell phones in the paddock area.
The rulings will deal with the nuts and bolts of the present while adhering to the mandates of the past, a much different time in America, mostly when horse racing and Las Vegas were the only legal ways to gamble in this country.
Yesterday at the Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown, hard by the Tappan Zee, executives from every branch of the gaming industry assessed the state of gaming in New York.
The agenda was diverse and comprehensive, dealing with the politics of gaming and the law, competition within the Northeast, marketing, technology and, of course, the problems enveloping all-breeds racing, on and off track.
The game has been studied to death, as everyone knows, and even its practitioners seem to have grown a bit cynical in the process. Thoroughbred racing interests seem to have reached the third step; acceptance.
But then there was a little harness track in the southwest corner of the state that’s making it because its management is thinking through the problems, convincing regulators to allow the market to breathe, and its one of the few harness tracks that are working.
Hard to imagine that Tioga Gaming and Raceway would be fairing a lot better than The Meadowlands these days, without whose existence you could virtually shut down an entire harness breeding industry. Owners don’t spend big bucks just to find a “Saturday night horse.”
Most of the gaming people acknowledged issues effecting wagering across an entire industry, appearing happy with their place at the table, if a bit cheeky. Said one racino marketing executive: “You want people to look more closely, show them what you’ve got; it’s not just a tired old racetrack.”
I dropped my pencil, so I never heard whether the state’s racetracks got acknowledged and given a proper thank you.
Tomorrow, we hope to focus on the remarks of 2010 Gaming Summit keynoter Jeff Gural--that’s if the Power Point shows up. For now, let’s go leafing through a notepad:
* Expect to see racing on Palm Sunday, funding for another year of steroid testing and maximum fines raised from $5,000 to $25,000 for suitable violations.
* But no movement on possible VLTs for Belmont, reinstituting permission for the tracks to dispense free passes, or change or elimination of the “held harmless” provision that continues to hold OTBs while harness tracks tally up their VLT receipts.
* That Indian Nations are “very passionate” about preserving their no-tax status guaranteed them by the Constitution but that the Obama administration is not so much. “Things are moving slowly [in Washington], and don’t expect things to get rolling anytime soon.“
* Making “Quick Draw” permanent will be acted on any minute now, that the next NYS administration--those looking to bet Cuomo could find no takers at any price--will review gaming “as a whole” having as a possible goal a constitutional amendment allowing full scale gaming.
* That, shocking no one, economics is not the only consideration in gaming, that policy, morals and counter-productive competition also play a significant role.
* That in the not-too-distant future there will be expansion of the Lottery.
* Electric gaming can go forward not by statute but because it’s not expressly forbidden. However, gaming operators won’t invest in electronic gaming because they distrust that system. Who could blame them?
* That gaming in the East has not reached the saturation point because the market has grown despite the Great Recession and that growth continues with so many untapped areas. Saturation may be “quite a ways off.”
* That making a racino at The Meadowlands would hurt Atlantic City “tremendously” and that A.C. needs to be smarter and do something special, looking for niche markets beyond their regional customers.
* That NYS legislators need to be “weaned off gaming solely as a revenue provider” and eliminate punitive laws that protect what market gaming has, making job creation another major focus.
* That 60 percent of slots players are women over 40 earning $45,000 a year and that 60 percent of table-games players are men over 40 earning $75,000.
* That on Saturday nights, 40 percent of the crowd playing games like 3-Card Poker are younger people and that 20 percent of the people that go to Foxwoods don’t gamble at all.
* That Massachusetts, with a gaming tax rate of 25 percent compared with New York’s 50, is planning three casinos, one in the Western portion of the state and that “the impact on Saratoga will be significant.” Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. Mohegan Sun in Connecticut wants to get something going in Massachusetts.
* That when it comes to technology, it’s hard to get people out of the house because of HDTV but e-marketing will become a greater part of the marketing mix in the future. For now, Direct Mail is still king.
Written by John Pricci