Illinois

[tlombard]

I hope Illinois finally allows slot machines at horse tracks. I currently go to Fairmount Park once or twice a year when I can round up friends. I generally hate gambling (I don't go to casinos at all) but I do like betting on the ponies and would throw a few bucks into the slots. I think it also might make it a little easier to get some friends over to the track with me who don't like to bet on the races (or act like they need a passport to cross the river) but would throw money into the slots to go along with the $1 beer on Friday nights. That makes no sense to me, the part about not betting on horses, but whatever.

I can't stand putting money on the line knowing that the odds are not in my favor. The only reason I can get down with horse racing is it is only a few bucks every 19 minutes and you get to talk trash to friends in between races and then yell inappropriate threats, insults and encouragement at your horse during the race.

[mikechamp]

I generally hate gambling (I don't go to casinos at all) but I do like betting on the ponies and would throw a few bucks into the slots.
...
I can't stand putting money on the line knowing that the odds are not in my favor.

[Maclowery]

I think he means that slots are automatically a percentage take for the house, and although the tracks have their betting set up to make a profit, you at least control your own destiny through research and hunches. Right?

[tlombard]

That is pretty much it but mainly, I enjoy yelling at the horses and talking trash with friends between races so I don't mind the losing quite as much. It is always a blast when you don't realize that there is a kid ten feet away and you yell something inappropriate at your horse as it finishes second to last and then realize that a three year old is giving you the death stare for cussing and the kid's father is just laughing at the comment and his kid's reaction. And it takes a lot longer to drain my money at the horse track. I can place a $2 bet on a race and then have 20 minutes until that race is over and I've lost that money. I can lose $5 or $10 on a hand of Blackjack in a matter of seconds. I don't mind if I go to the track and spend $40 over an entire evening of fun when it covers my booze and betting.

Going to a casino I blow through that same $40 in under an hour 90% of the time and then have to spend more money drinking while friends sit there and lose $100 or more. My first time at a casino was my 21st and my dad gave me $100 to gamble at a Blackjack table where was $25/hand. That $100 was gone in four hands and I think that really soured me on casinos. At the time I was making about $9/hour working full time. Putting that $100 in my pocket would have been a huge help to me back then.

To your point about research and hunches, I don't have a clue what to research but I was with some friends over at Fairmount nearly a decade ago and one of the girls gave me some tips on picking winners right before the race by looking at the horses as they came out. Her horse either won or placed at least 80% of the races. She works at the track in some capacity and from time to time I've seen her riding one of the horses that escorts the racers to the gate so she defintily has the experience with thoroughbreds. I'm not as good as she was at picking out the little things (I can't even remember what they all are because it was a long time ago) but it does help.

[tlombard]

And with horse racing, you get to at least choose your odds even if they will never truly be in your favor. If you want to really play it safe then you go with the favorite to show. With picking the favorite to place in the top third, you are making the odds about as close to in your favor as possible with any betting.

Once again though, it is the social aspect that I enjoy about Fairmount. And if slots help bring in larger crowds and in turn larger purses and better horses then I'm all for it and might even throw a couple of bucks through the slots myself from time to time.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

The odds of horse racing are horrible compared to say craps or black jack or roulette or a fixed boxing match where you've bet on the loser. But, as mentioned, you only bet once every 20 min or so, can only bet on about 10 races, and don't have to pay attention to anything but bull [expletive] for 95% of the time and the other 5% is spent yelling... at horses....to run.

It's more like charity than anything. It's definitely not gambling unless you're a degenerate and pay tons of attention to the ponies or train them and are out there everyday. Then you've got a decent enough chance, but you've got to have a pretty big leg up.

[lukethedrifter]

I pick the horse that isn't limping.

/protip

[jim]

I hope Illinois finally allows slot machines at horse tracks. I currently go to Fairmount Park once or twice a year when I can round up friends. I generally hate gambling (I don't go to casinos at all) but I do like betting on the ponies and would throw a few bucks into the slots. I think it also might make it a little easier to get some friends over to the track with me who don't like to bet on the races (or act like they need a passport to cross the river) but would throw money into the slots to go along with the $1 beer on Friday nights. That makes no sense to me, the part about not betting on horses, but whatever.

I can't stand putting money on the line knowing that the odds are not in my favor. The only reason I can get down with horse racing is it is only a few bucks every 19 minutes and you get to talk trash to friends in between races and then yell inappropriate threats, insults and encouragement at your horse during the race.

I like betting the ponies as well (Arlington), and one of the reason is that despite the high takeout rates that make it near impossible to impossible to make money long term, you aren't betting against the house. You throw your money in a slot machine enough times and you will lose, but by betting against the crowd you can take advantage of a lot of people that bet without any clue. I don't kid myself into thinking I can make up the 18-25% takeout, well ok I do kid myself. I actually think I can win, every time. I never ever play the slots.

I actually have developed some software to suck in the Equibase pdf charts (http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbRace ... ?refresh=1) and give me a bunch of info such as split times etc... I could pay $200 and get the CSV files but I just right click save the pdf files, and us Python which has some utilities for converting pdf to strings and then I have various methods to chew on it.

The other thing I like to do is "play" the free race of the day. You get one free race a day on Equibase where you get the Past Performance card for free and then I basically handicap it and then select. You can create your own bankroll etc ... but it's a little harder because you usually don't know the horses like you do at your home track.

I really don't bet that much, but if I go I generally won't place a bet under $10. I might box something for $1-2 a piece but the total bet will always be over 10. For win bets it's generally $20 unless I feel really good about something, $20 is nice because you just add a 0 to the payout board. I'll go with bankroll of a $100, and when it's gone that it's it.

But of course Illinois [expletive] up everything, and now they are talking about cutting the schedule at Arlington this year.

edit... here is an example of what my code does. Using the following race result as input:

It's raw, but it does what I want and I add stuff it all the time. If I wrapped in a pretty package I could probably sell it.

Using the following race result as input:

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbPDFC ... &STYLE=EQB

Code: Select all

>>> from Race import Race
>>> r = Race()
>>> r.raceDate()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable
>>> r.getRaceDate()
'September29,2013'
>>> r.getPurse()
24000
>>> r.getTrackCond()
'Fast'
>>> r.getWeather()
'Clear'
>>> r.getRaceDistance()
'FiveAndOneHalfFurlongs'
>>> r.getWinner()
'BorderHopper'
>>> r.getfractionalTimes()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: Race instance has no attribute 'getfractionalTimes'
>>> r.getFractionalTimes()
['23.25', '46.74', '58.21']
>>> r.getSplitTimes()
['23:49', '11:47', '6:10']

So you can imagine I have created report wrappers and stuff around this, above is the raw interfaces. I think it helps make a more informed decision but obviously it's not a magic bullet. Just another tool in the toolbox.

Yeah, I like the ponies.

[Maclowery]

Random horse racing story:

In about 2002, I went to the Des Moines horse racing track with a good friend, a waitress I worked with who had no idea about anything, and a Brazilian cook who had never gambled a dime in his life. The 9th race usually has a clear favorite, so I convinced the others to each put in 2 bucks for an 8 dollar trifecta bet. (ie, we picked 1,2,3 in order) Like Lombard said, we were screaming and yelling as the horses came by - the favorite was like 8 lengths ahead, but our third horse was back in the middle. Right at the end, he came on strong, and we won our trifecta. We went bat - [expletive] crazy and were clearly the loudest people in the relatively small crowd. The winner's owner called us down and we got our picture taken with the horse. He asked us how much we won - 71 dollars - and he looked at us like we were nuts. He definitely thought we'd won like a thousand bucks or something.

To this day, it is one of my favorite moments of my life.

[jim]

I think he means that slots are automatically a percentage take for the house, and although the tracks have their betting set up to make a profit, you at least control your own destiny through research and hunches. Right?

At the horse track you are not betting against the house, you are betting against the other bettors. Now, the track adds a surcharge for supplying the race environment which includes the track, vets, toteboard, etc.. which amounts to about 18-25% of your bet depending on the type of bet (win/place/show is always the lowest btw, they ding you on the exotics). You do in alot of respect control your destiny more than betting against the house which is always rigged. Finding overlays of 20% to cover that aren't easy, but they do exist. There are always going to be those horses that have virtually no chance - and I mean NO chance - of winning that go off at 30, 40, 50 to 1. That pool of money is free cheese, and that's where a smart bet comes in handy.

Look for the overlays .. .and I have to say the free race of the day has an interesting entry that has a morning line of 20-1. If that horse stayed at 20-1 I'd be at the window at Calder $10 to win on 2. I'm not saying he's going to win, but I don't think he should be be at 20-1. I'd probably keep that bet unless he fell to 16-1 or lower, then I would back off. But at 20-1 it's a bargain, if he isn't scratched.

http://www.equibase.com/rotd/fullpp.pdf