More Betting Is Just Around the Corner

If one wanted to bet the Kentucky Derby last Saturday, and didn’t want to travel to Kentucky, one could make one’s way to Hollywood Park, which conjured up nine other races challenging one’s science.

Hollywood Park was among 240 Derby betting outlets, which also included Yakima Meadows, Wyoming Downs and Beulah Park.

The races offered by Hollywood Park could be bet at 11 locations within a 150-mile radius of the course.

One of those locations, operated by Indians, is called the Cabazon Bingo Palace and Gaming Center, out yonder on the Colorado Desert near Indio.

The Sycuan Indians also capture the Hollywood Park signal, bringing the races, for wagering, to their reservation near San Diego.

One needn’t be an Indian to bet at either place.

The difference between the Indian satellite stations and the others is that the Indians have the state of California in court, where the Indians are claiming a state tax exemption on the swag they are hauling in from the races. Their contention: under federal law dealing with Indian affairs, they are exempt, as sovereign nations, from state tax on the sale of liquor, meaning they also must be exempt on the sale of mutuel tickets.

You can see the court has a delicate problem on its hands. All 11 satellite stations are willing to take bets on the outcome.

Betting on Hollywood Park races is accepted at Del Mar, some 100 miles south.

And when racing ends at Hollywood Park, it will accept bets on racing at Del Mar.

OK, in the state legislature, a bill is coming up for vote on whether to permit inter-track betting in situations in which the tracks are in the immediate proximity of each other.

In other words, if the bill is passed, as expected, bets will accepted on Hollywood Park at Santa Anita, at Fairplex Park in Pomona, Orange County Fair Grounds in Costa Mesa and Los Alamitos.

And, of course, such arrangement will prevail among the five when the meeting of each is in progress.

So the direction in which thoroughbred racing is going is pretty clear. The day of freeway motoring in order to gamble on horses is near a close.

“It is my opinion we are not too far away from betting in one’s own home,” say R.D. Hubbard, new operator of Hollywood Park. “One will buy our closed-circuit pictures and, through electronic devices, bet directly from one’s living room. It will be as simple as placing a credit-card telephone call.”

Research reveals, according to Hubbard, that the average horse-nik in areas featuring big league traffic won’t drive more than 15 miles in order to get into action.

This means that people living near Santa Anita won’t drive to Hollywood Park, some 30 miles away.

And vice versa.

Hence, the plea before the state legislature for inter-track wagering by television.

There are several ways to view what is happening. You could say, to begin with, that only some kind of degenerate would bet on pictures. He must be stopped, for his own sake and for that of society.

Or you could say, “Look this is life in American’s most populous state. Traffic dictates that one works one’s own region. “

A final point of view could be, “Well, bag all the race dates you can. Run even between midnight and breakfast. Offer inter-track betting until it comes out of your organs of hearing. But saturating the market, don’t come complaining about the decline of racing.”

On Derby Day last Saturday, Hollywood Park drew 37,000. The satellite stations drew 21,000. All money is funneled into the main mutuel pool at the track, but, for its efforts, each satellite keeps 2.2% of its handle.

This means the track makes less on satellite wagering, as airlines make less on super-discount tickets. But those are seats that otherwise would stay empty.

So how does the horse view this picture? His or her feelings are mixed. First, derision of an off-track bettor can’t be heard when a 3-5 shot runs of the money. That’s good.

But a horse isn’t sure he or she wants to perform before studio audiences. A horse is a salaried worker, entertaining for room and board in an atmosphere of celibacy.

If he or she can’t feel the crowd, he or she may hang it up. There are groups today that protect a horse who doesn’t choose to run.

The racing industry, you can see, has created a dilemma for this artist and doesn’t even know it.