1,600 horse racing fans 'ask' New York legislature to trigger manipulated-game business at Aqueduct

June 29, 11:07 AMNY Horse Racing ExaminerBobby Smith

Previous Next

7 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Horse Racing Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

New York breeders would like to benefit from games rigged against folks.

About 30 years ago, ex-New York racetrack announcer Fred Capossela called Bingo games in Florida as a retiree. In the near future, it’s possible to envision a scenario by which current New York track announcer Tom Durkin can call Bingo games between races at Aqueduct.

How do you define progress?

Yesterday, the New York Racing Association contacted its E-mail marketing list with a link that connected them to a petition of support for the installation of Video Lottery Terminals at Aqueduct. The petition, written by New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc., was directed to the New York State Legislature and Governor David Paterson.

It could be argued that the only thing slower from start to finish than a New York bred maiden in a 1 3/8-mile grass race is the Aqueduct VLT project, now eight years old (and counting) and still standing flat-footed behind the starting gate. The petition is worded thusly:

“We, the undersigned, call upon the NYS Legislature and Governor Paterson to finally approve the efforts to make video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Racetrack at (sic) reality. Fulfilling the state’s promise from nearly eight years ago to bring VLTs to Aqueduct will result in much needed revenue for the horse racing and breeding industry and the state of New York.

Thoroughbred horse racing and breeding accounts for 55 percent of New York’s equine industry – the number one agricultural sector of the state’s economy. Thoroughbred racing and breeding produces 30,000 in-state jobs and billions of dollars for our economy. The current economic crisis and competition from our neighboring states threatens to devastate racing and breeding in New York.

We respectfully request the New York State Legislative leaders and Governor Paterson act quickly to our urgent need and save New York’s thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.”

“I was just going to read it, not sign it," wrote one thoroughbred bettor in response to the petition at paceadvantage.com, a popular forum for disaffected racing fans and those who love them. "I'm pretty much 1000% against welfare for horsemen and tracks at the expense of the poor.”

Even without proof, many people doubt that trainers and jockeys combine to produce horse races that aren’t somehow manipulated from their natural outcomes. With VLTs however, there is no doubt. The results are definitely rigged. VLTs operate on a Bingo random number generator, but are considered to be computerized scratch-off lottery tickets because the total amount and number of payouts allowed at connected terminals are programmed in advance.

Funny, but nobody seems to remember race bettors or the general public calling politicians or the New York Racing Association eight years ago and clamoring for the installation of machines programmed in advance to work against them. For a nice, bizarre touch, it’s common knowledge that the New York State Legislature being petitioned isn’t acting on anything put in front of it lately because they are pre-occupied with acting out among themselves. Bill Hammond of the New York Daily News yesterday called members of the New York State Senate a pack of blithering idiots. Given all this information, it’s hard to summarize what’s going on here with the circulation of this petition. How about:

Recently bankrupted racing organization enables contrived communication between blithering idiots and innocent mailing list contacts on behalf of breeders of slow racehorses with “23” Beyer Figures in hopes that rigged machines can be installed on its premises for the purpose of separating innocent mailing list contacts and others from their money because breeders of slow racehorses are struggling to stay in business.

As of this morning, nearly 1,600 “signatures” had been registered. No word on whether or not any of the signees understood what they were allegedly supporting. Meanwhile, imagine Tom Durkin in a couple of years: “Attention please, ladies and gentlemen. In the third race, scratch the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12 and 13,…and here’s your next number, it’s O-62…wait, I meant B-15!”

For more info: Bobby Smith is editor of sportsreporter.com.