With the past posting problems we just saw at Hollywood Park and Penn National in the past week or so, the betting public's confidence level continues to be low despite the fact that we are in the 21st Century.
Often we see the odds of winners drop halfway to three quarters into a race. I contend that most of the time, it is simply batch computer betting programs done by big and medium gamblers alike, who don't bet overlays until 1 minute to post or less.
But in the back of every player's mind, there have been known scams. Remember the betting scam that was done at Woodbine and Greenwood around 20-25 years ago? Very good handicappers would make large bets at the bell, and have the ability to cancel the tickets if their horse didn't have a great start. Some tellers were in on the betting syndicate as well.
There is still the ability to cancel big bets I believe, but it is harder to pull it off these days.
This brings me to the biggest known betting scam that North America horse racing has ever seen. The following video goes into detail how the Pick 6 scam worked, and one wonders if not for pure greed and lack of foresight, if the scam could have lasted for years if not decades.
What is really neat about the following documentary is for some reason much of it contains scenes from Woodbine, even though Woodbine had nothing to do with the scam:
HT CBedo and CMoore on Pace Advantage
Those who had 5 of 6 eventually were paid, once they proved they made the bet. But what about those who were ripped off in the smaller test scams, when the scammers made over $100,000 betting pick 4's?
3 comments:
so much money goes into pools in the last 2-3 minutes, and races are often delayed. If we only had one or two meetings on at a time including simulcast, then this could work, but everyone wants quantity not quality. Cutting back on betting time is a step back into 1964. The technology is there to control this, it just needs to be used properly, with all loopholes eradicated. Again, another advantage of having all the betting and racing controlled by a central body (or one for each) so that procedures are uniform throughout North America.
How about a shout out to Ft Erie on their (almost) $900,000 handle today? 10 races and $1Million handles are well on the way, even if Sunday continues to be hopeless...
Anon, I'll get to that in my next post. Been busy of late.
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