Overall a good piece I thought but there was on quote towards the end that i found somewhat strange:
“But it is not the public, the racegoer or HRI that is putting on-course bookmakers out of business. It is the system that has been allowed to develop whereby huge amounts of money are going off-shore.”
This system is called technology and advancement.
God forbid us poor punters wanting to take 4/1 about a horse off another punter (same horse is 11/4 in the ring). Although I agree with a lot of what DB says here (particularly too many racecourses), I still feel that HRI, Govt and the powerful within the Racing establishment do not grasp one very important point.
The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to betting, the ring, margins and business models. All bets are off - pardon the pun. The future funding of racing here should be linked to a much wider plan to attract thousands of well paid, e-commerce driven, smart technology jobs to Ireland. If the exchequer were to benfit to the turn of say , €100M in terms of investment, jobs, tax, and the impact on shortening dole queues, I don;t think anyone would hugely begrudge HRI a wedge in financing the on-going racing industry here.