But maybe not. You see a lot of weird stuff at a racetrack. Just like at a sportsbook.
I was 15 when I went out to a track for the first time. By myself.
Because I'd read an a article in a men's skin mag about making money with a system, which the writer explained in detail.
Wow, I thought. Here's an easy way to make money.
I took the train to Aqueduct. I bought a Racing Form, and burying my nose in it overheard someone say, about me, "Hey, lookit the kid!"
Like i was maybe gonna give him a few winners, like DH Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner."
I don't recall if I won or lost that day. What I do remember is seeing something a bit unsettling, at least to a "kid."
In those days the seller's window had vertical bars coming down, and only an open space of the bottom of the cage to pass in money and pass out tickets.
Well, this guy had reached through the verticle bars and grabbed the seller by the lapels, shaking the sh-t out of him, banging his head on the bars, and louding cursing him as a thief.
Security guards finally pried the irate customer loose from the shortchanging clerk, and led him away.
If one goes to the track on weekends, and wagers $10,000 over the course of a year, and bets a mix of WPS and exotics, even a monkey closing his eyes can get back about $8,000 of that back. 2K a year in losses comes out to about $40 a week on average, barely enough to pay for a movie and popcorn for you and a date. As a diversion, it can be very enjoyable at a very reasonable cost, if you just have minimal self-control.
If you want to play every day, and grind $750,000 a year through the windows, and seek a 1.10 ROI to make a 75K profit, you're going to have to have one hell of an edge to beat the 20% vig plus another 10%.
If you're a realist, horse racing can be a very fun, challenging diversion. If you're a dreamer, it'll probably be a very bumpy rough ride.
Betting is Blood Sport: A Gambler's Tale
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