- Here's what I don't understand about this latest incident (as originally and exclusively reported by The Paulick Report) of a breach in the tote system, as well as others like it:
If you walked into a bank to find that an employee left $10,000 sitting on his desk while he went out to play the early Pick Four at OTB, and you took it and walked out, you'd get arrested for larceny. The same would be true even if the money was hand delivered straight into your bank account by error.
But when a racetrack leaves some money on the table, I guess it's just legal to grab whatever you can get. Yes? I mean, I don't know, but apparently so! The winner paid $9.20; Dick Jerardi, reporting and expanding on the original and exclusive story, speculates that it would have been around 8-1 without the after the fact wagers. Paulick's report includes a matter-of-fact telling of a bettor calmly cashing $500 win and exacta bets. I'm glad I wasn't there, because I'd start yelling at the guy and end up having to be subdued by three four burly security guys (I work out). He knew exactly what he was doing, which was blatantly stealing from others in the pool who had to make their bets before the race. Of course, the industry has to face up to the fact that this was not an entirely isolated incident, and work to ensure the integrity of the tote system. But as far as the bettors who take advantage, shouldn't there oughta be a law?
RSS Feed for this Blog
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Past-Posting Post
Posted by Alan Mann at 11:08 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 Comments:
How many horse players do you know who wouldn't take advantage of this situation if it fell in their lap? Personally it would be a kind of fulfillment of my childhood time travel fantasies. But if the player manipulated things in order to gain the advantage, then yes, he should be prosecuted for race fixing.
I was playing the Philly races on that day on my home computer through Philly's PhoneBet system and I'm pretty certain that the problems at DelPark arose well before the Philly race in question.
Shouldn't the problems at DelPark have served as an alert that the betting system was screwed up and that perhaps it should have been shut down at Philly as well until the mess was straightened out?
I guess Philly Park management was afraid that a (small) riot would ensue if the races were made non-betting affairs.
It would not take much to get Philly fans to riot,
I agree with you but are you really surprised that a few people grabbed what they could when the "gettin' was good"? It does suck for those who played the races fair and square.
I would like to reiterate (for your sake) that this story was reported "originally and exclusively" by Ray Paulick. Are you sure you can write or even mention this story without the express written consent of Ray Paulick? You might be swimming in dangerous waters.
Kevin - No, of course I'm not surprised. And I agree with the first commenter that it's like a fantasy come true, like having that camera that could take pictures of the tote board five minutes into the future. But while one never knows how he/she will react to a given situation, I think I can honestly say that I wouldn't do it no more than I would run away with money I see someone drop in the street. Maybe I'm too honest for my own good.
Kevin, you cannot be serious when you suggest that a journalist or blogger needs permission to mention or discuss a news story.
Now, reproducing a copywrighted story on a blog through a link to the original might cause problems.
I am a senior editor of two ophthalmology magazines and we have had our articles put on practice Web sites and for-profit medical news sites without our permission -- and we threaten legal action when it is for-profit. We usually let the practices go. We have never gone farther than the threat because they back off.
I am totally not serious -- I was being sarcastic. Check out the Paulick Report for Ray Paulick's reaction to a story he published about past posting being "ripped off" by the Thoroughbred Times: http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/thoroughbred-times-rip-off/
"....... like having that camera that could take pictures of the tote board five minutes into the future"
A Twilight Zone episode that I saw over the July 4th weekend had the exact same story line - a camera that takes pictures 5 minutes into the future. Of course the camera's owners used it to make a killing at the track, Hollywood Park I think, until fate took over.
Post a Comment