October
OctoberMarginal issues
I must compliment Nigel King’s summary of English racing (5/10), where the punter is king, with bookies, exchanges and totes at his disposal. Fortunately we punters in Australia enjoy the same competitive betting environment.
Nigel and the rest of us like cheap prices at our duopolistic supermarkets and I doubt any of us really care how they are coping financially. We have powerful allies in our seven governments, manifest in the laws they have formulated to enshrine a competitive marketplace.
So since when are punters expected to prop up an industry as large as racing?
As everyone knows, the easiest area where racing can improve its bottom line is to increase the takeout by further reducing punters’ margins.
The High Court has caused Betfair’s takeout to increase by 20 per cent while in England the Government allows Betfair to retain its competitive edge.
Our Productivity Commission is dead against the takeout model legalised by the High Court to the detriment of all punters.
Perhaps the supermarkets could visit the High Court to seek the reintroduction of retail price maintenance, which is similar to racing’s current model.
Just as we all live in fear of the day GST will increase beyond 10 per cent, so we punters need to be permanently on guard for the impending time when our margins will be further eroded.
Even last week Bart Cummins wished that all the bookies could be banned, just as in Japan, where the biggest prizemoney is.
Ditto for France, where few people bet and prizemoney is paltry.
Perhaps the French, like the English, are more intelligent than Japanese or even Hong Kong people, who continue to bet profusely while being slugged by monopoly racing jurisdictions.
I must have been born a punter but if people start dipping any further into our margins I will have to become an SP bookie to take advantage of extra takeout percentages.
Bendigo (Vic)