The walking death of pari-mutuel racing in Tennessee, Part 11

by Frank Cotolo

Part 1 ishere.

Part 2 is here.

Part 3 ishere.

Part 4 is here.

Part 5 is here.

Part 6 is here.

Part 7 is here.

Part 8 is here.

Part 9 is here.

Part 10 is here.

I bet the horses at just about every legal place available while living in America. Not just at racetracks proper. In the mid-1980s I did most of my gambling at off-track betting (OTB) stores in New York City. It was fast and easy; especially when you already studied the racing program (or the popular newspaper SportsEye [sic]. You went into the store and up to a betting window to make your bets. Then you left. Later you listened to brief race recalls on the local news-radio channel or called a special OTB telephone service for results.

Betting the horses off track in Great Britain was nowhere near as simple. I dug into the possibility of a huge British wagering company expanding its business across the Atlantic with a network of betting spots that could attract an enormous fanbase around the multi-state borders of Tennessee. This was a brilliant but dangerous move. I wondered if the company in question (which I will call Britbet Book) was aware of how American OTBs presented the service and the facilities since the betting public in England was — to use a phrase — a horse of a different colour (sic).

I used my first-hand British OTB experiences and some of my trusted race-industry sources to explore the British wagering corporation’s product.

Britbet Book owned and operated betting “shoppes” in crowded cities and towns and quaint villages across the United Kingdom. I lived in Harrogate while in England. It was a popular tourist area in North Yorkshire. It was a prime area for European tourists and a local hangout for resident “punters” (the British slang for horse-racing bettors). Britbet Book (BB) shoppes were more convenient than visiting the nearest racetracks — Ripon and Thirsk — to make wagers. I found all of the shoppes to be clean and organized while filled with a colorful blend of folks taking advantage of the vast menu of races taking place day and night at a score of active meets sprinkled all over the country.

The simplest bet was called a “pari-mutuel” win bet. But it was not based on British racetrack action. It was based on French racing results. The Sun-UK “Guide to the Flat” explained: “[BB] will pay pari-mutuel returns on [chosen] French events. The dividend you see in the [Sun] newspaper will be declared to a one-franc unit inclusive of stake, the returns being in francs and tenths of francs. All you have to do to assess your returns is to substitute pounds for francs.

Simple? Not so much. Aside from the math and extra research involved in a pari-mutuel bet there were other details on how to calculate a pari-mutuel win. Good thing the BB shoppe cashiers were polite and well-versed on the huge library of wager types that created a buffet of gimmick combos. For anyone else there was the punter’s dictionary: “The A-B-C Of Bets.” A crash course of the wager types BB accepted. This massive list of betting concoctions demanded a university’s worth of study. But could a BB network of U.S. shoppes get the necessary approvals to allow for bets like the Dundee Shuffle or the Heinz or the Roundabout or the Accumulator or the Banko or Double Stakes About, if the corporation decided to bring over the highly profitable gimmicks?

I asked my secret source. He was a racing industry businessman in Pennsylvania (let me call him Ernie). “With the right political and investor connections,” he said, “lots of those gimmicks might go over big. Mostly because they could translate into humungous pari-mutuel pools and a host of takeout cash. Plus, they might attract lots of new bettors. Folks liking gimmick bets. Plenty of those.”

Ernie was way ahead of his time. He foresaw what state lotteries would offer once they became legal in states across the U.S., that is, the state lottery products. It designed colorful original themes for multi-priced scratch-off tickets offering the same simple lame game — matching numbers and huge prizes buried within each themed game.

Ernie said, “BB may not want to import their gimmick bets. Maybe not right away if ever. They may be comfortable going with what we already have.”

“I tend to think they will start with our ways and slowly work at the truly sucker wager gimmicks.”

Ernie chuckled and then said, “But you know you are missing a main element.”

“As in what?”

“As in BB setting up an American base.”

“I missed something? What?”

“The corporation won’t even be able to start an OTB network without having ownership of an American track, right?”

“Really?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“You know any for sale?”

“Every racetrack is always for sale.”