Sports betting?

I think everyone’s seen what happened at Fenway Park. And It’s a perfect illustration as why I absolutely 100% prefer horseracing to sports gambling.

Humans aren’t really as involved in horseracing as they are in any other sport. That’s why. Sure, every once in a while some yay-hoo gets the Oaklawn Park Special and wanders out onto the track. But generally, the horses are there, they run, and you don’t have to wonder if the 6 horse is shaving time to work off a gambling debt.

Plus horses pay better on a bet. Sports bets are worked to create a 50/50 proposition. That’s the entire point of a line, and over/under. One side of the line pays the same as the other side.

Horseracing, though, pays out the amount wagered (minus the house rake). Which means that if $100,000 was bet across 6 horses, that will be paid out no matter which horse crosses first. Some are just more likely to pay out than others, and people put more money into the #2 horse than the #6….the money is spread across more bettors. So it pays less. That’s how horseracing odds work.

I’ve been in some tiny racetracks (I’m looking at you, Calgary) where I put a $50 bet down and watched my horse move from 17-1 to 6-1.

In related horse-racing news:
in order to drive more people to the track today, Emerald Downs, the horse track nearest Seattle, is not only offering a blanket to the first people to show up today, but they have also set up a branch of the post office, to keep you from using “But I gotta go to the post office to mail my taxes” as an excuse for not showing up and throwing a tenner down on the 9th. As if there wasn’t an already slightly hard-luck aura to the track, now they are actively seeking out people who put their taxes off until the last minute to come in.

Fan-tastic.