Horses and Poker?

January 13, 2009

Once upon a time they were happy with just the horses. Then they were happy with the slot machines. Now they won’t be happy until they have poker tables – and one has to wonder what else there is to come.

The horse tracks said that they could not survive on the money that came from the races. They all said that they needed more money; that they needed slot machines, in order to bring in the best horses and thus more people to watch the races. However, everyone had the same idea, so now all of those that brought in the slot machines have all but eliminated everyone who didn’t – and now they are competing against each other for the slot machine revenue as well as horse revenue.

But now they say that they need poker tables because the horse racing and the slot machines are not bringing in enough money. They say that the money that is coming in used to be enough but now they need more. They say that the horse tracks will go under if they aren’t given poker games, and then the agricultural industry will go under, etc., etc.

But this is the argument that they made when they brought in the slot machines. They said that without them they would close – so at some point they are going to need something else because the poker tables won’t be enough either. How do we know what the next thing is to prop up the horse racing industry? Perhaps it is simply time to let the horse racing industry die a natural death and put the horses out to pasture.