Why do you pay to go to the races?

It's a complex situation. While you have a tote monopoly, where some/all of the profits are re-invested back into the sport, we have on and off course bookmakers which re-invest as little as they can get away with back into the sport and keep the profits for themselves. Even our tote has recently been acquired by a bookmaker. (BetFred) Our current means of funding racing is a negotiated levy system, where again the bookmakers try to give the absolute minimum back to the sport. Our racecourses are owned by a number of different companies with different motives. I'm going to send you a message through the Betfair message system to explain some of your other questions on another thread about the form over here.

only go to racing where two for one of 30%off never paid full price ever always codes around if you know where to look

Simply put - in North America horse racing is dying and the tracks (and racing commissions) do what they can to entice people to go to the track instead of the OTBs. In the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, France etc. horse racing is still seen as a social event so people are willing to pay as they would any other form of entertainment.

Maybe this clip from My Fair Lady explains it best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMSvyqHHwA

sport of kings run by a bunch of walleys

I pay because the courses charge us! We (mrs TM and I) pay for an annual pass with "Go Racing in Yorkshire" which gives us access to 179 meetings per year for £510 ish. I think that's good value.
The reason I actually go to the races is to get a look at the horses in the pre-parade prior to having a decent bet. Otherwise I would have to rely on tv pictures and would tend to bet much smaller amounts.