5 votes

'The sport is at a tipping point': Inside US horse racing’s deadly crisis

1 comment

  1. vakieh
    Link
    Yeah. Far reaching in that a bunch of horses wouldn't unnecessarily die. I also find it interesting that the only person in academia they could find to give the doomsday speech was someone who is...

    yet the consequences of a wholesale ban would be far-reaching

    Yeah. Far reaching in that a bunch of horses wouldn't unnecessarily die. I also find it interesting that the only person in academia they could find to give the doomsday speech was someone who is

    an associate professor in the University of Louisville College of Business’s equine industry program

    Like, could you GET a more conflicted position? Any professor of economics (probably at that same institution, though there are much better ones available) would be able to tell you that the VAST majority of gambling spending is cannibalised from other consumer spending (if you can't drop $100 on a horse race you'll drop it at the pub, or on a fancy dinner, or something else - you are unlikely to be going to save it), and any reduction in consumer spend is being redirected to other consumer goods/services. If your state has given itself that much an imbalance that eliminating gambling driven income but boosting pretty much all other consumer goods/services by a very close to equal amount causes you that much financial hardship then your state deserves its future bankruptcy.

    The economic concerns are fearmongering by an industry who knows they are going the way of the cigarette but wants to hold something hostage. There ARE no economic concerns, you could ban it tomorrow and the world would keep spinning unchanged (except for a bunch of horses not being whipped until they bled, forced to jump when they don't want to so they fall and break their legs, or being killed because they don't run quite fast enough).

    2 votes