In the first three days of the inaugural meet at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, PA the track paid out almost $1.3 million in purses and only attracted a little more than $1.4 million in bets. The track paid out the equivalent of 90% of its mutuel pools in purses. Of the $1.4 million wagered about $296,000 taken out of the pools (takeout). My guess is less than 20% of this goes to PID as revenues (it appears that more than 80% was bet offtrack). Given that purses are more than 20 times racing revenue (a conservative estimate), I can't see this lasting or being good for the sport. I am not sure why PID even bothers with racing - oh yeah in order to get slots they have to have the horses. As soon as states face a budget crunch, they are going to grab this money - and who can blame them. I'd much rather have the horse racing subsidy disappear than pay higher taxes (said both as an economist and as a taxpayer).

I think that PA should reduce the subsidy every year until it is zero five years from now. At that point the racing product will have had time to grow and develop a regional fan base and a national simulcast following. If the owners of PID (and other tracks) find it impractical to continue operating racing, than they should be able to do so (and continue with their slots). Like anything else, horse racing should be responsible for its own survival. I see no reason why racing should be subsidized while most every other business in this country is taxed.

By the way, there is little evidence that slot players become horseplayers. Slots are crack for racing industry.

Presque Isle Downs 9/1
Race	Purse	Pools	WPS	Exacta	Trifecta	Super	Double	Pick 3
1	$100,000	$132,675	$54,154	$36,320	$26,569		$15,632
2	$70,000	$65,114	$26,075	$21,021	$15,632			$2,386
3	$35,000	$67,606	$25,268	$22,189	$17,934	$2,215
4	$35,000	$69,998	$26,387	$22,411	$18,814		$2,386
5	$49,000	$64,459	$25,683	$18,313	$15,015			$5,448
6	$77,000	$79,703	$31,484	$23,517	$19,450	$5,252
7	$87,500	$48,257	$18,954	$13,988	$10,331		$4,984
8	$26,250	$71,281	$25,283	$22,507	$18,774	$4,717
	$479,750	$599,093
	80%
Presque Isle Downs 9/2
Race	Purse	Pools	WPS	Exacta	Trifecta	Super	Double	Pick 3
1	$70,000	$61,096	$21,590	$19,774	$14,546		$5,186
2	$42,000	$30,176	$11,353	$9,349	$7,779			$1,695
3	$77,600	$72,741	$29,751	$23,914	$15,614	$3,462
4	$26,250	$47,608	$18,373	$14,733	$12,281		$2,221
5	$35,000	$58,311	$19,482	$19,033	$17,540			$2,256
6	$40,480	$64,099	$28,335	$22,056	$11,237	$2,471
7	$73,500	$40,690	$15,862	$11,455	$10,171		$3,202
8	$35,000	$59,890	$24,982	$19,486	$12,502	$2,920
	$399,830	$434,611
	92%
Presque Isle Downs 9/3
Race	Purse	Pools	WPS	Exacta	Trifecta	Super	Double	Pick 3
1	$26,250	$36,350	$11,203	$12,018	$9,417		$3,712
2	$38,500	$48,679	$15,884	$17,639	$13,368			$1,788
3	$29,750	$48,964	$19,304	$14,544	$12,330	$2,786
4	$77,000	$46,568	$17,584	$14,741	$12,722		$1,521
5	$80,500	$39,515	$14,573	$12,410	$10,336			$2,196
6	$40,250	$54,066	$19,670	$19,152	$13,099	$2,145
7	$100,000	$73,562	$29,856	$21,921	$17,313		$4,472
8	$24,500	$59,058	$21,352	$20,264	$13,893	$3,549
	$416,750	$406,762
	102%
	$1,296,330	$1,440,466
	90%