Computer Assisted Wagering

Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW) has been a hot topic of late. What we know is that there are a handful gamblers that use computer algorithms to formulate their wagers, are allowed to make their bets at the very last second and receive substantial rebates. But there's a lot we don't know, like how much are they betting, what pools they most prefer and what affect has that had on the "regular" player? In his latest report for the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF), entitled Sharks & Minnows, TIF Executive Director Pat...

Pat Brown, the director of The Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga, knows what makes an agenda tick. He has seen his fair share of seemingly endless Power Points, glazed-over eyes and the attendees that surf the Internet in an attempt to multitask. The best way to combat the conference malaise? Just a healthy dose of fun. "I've spent over 40 years of in and out of government, thinking about and writing about the gaming and horse racing industry," said Brown, a former advisor to New York's Governor Mario Cuomo...

Nine of the 11 largest betting pools have shown declines from all customers except computer-assisted wagering groups over the past four years, while the handle of the largest CAW groups grew dramatically, according to an extensive study of data released Monday by the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF). "The Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's analysis of data from Del Mar between 2018 and 2022 showed on an inflation-adjusted basis, per-race (or per-opportunity basis for certain bet types) CAW betting, from what is believed to be 17 accounts, has grown tremendously in the last...

by Richard Resnik I am writing in response to one of the comments on Dan Liebman's Letter to the Editor on computer assisted wagering. I am certain the CAW issue is drowning you and there are more important voices than mine to be heard. I will take this opportunity to share a few pieces of relevant information that form the basis for my ire on this issue. First, I am 77, a retired litigator and at a point in my life where betting is part of horse racing as a...

Thoroughbred Daily News has written extensively about Computer Assisted Wagering and the players and clubs that by using such methods have placed a stranglehold on our pari-mutuel system. Just a week ago in this space, Dan Ross had a wonderful column on the subject and what it has done to handle in California. It is hard to say no to someone wanting to bet a huge amount on Thoroughbred racing, and it is understandable in giving them rebates to reward their action. But it is harming the game and small...

Last month, a lengthy Financial Times feature detailed the growing share of overall handle generated through Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW)--both in California and nationwide. CAW players are a small group of high-volume and largely anonymous gamblers with an outsized impact on the betting markets due in no small part to the sophisticated wagering tools at their disposal. Because of their high stakes play, they're offered inducements in the form of rebates and reduced takeout rates largely not available to the average punter. CAW proponents argue that these deep-pocketed players provide...

No business can change what it does not measure. Racing's public measurement of support, via wagering, hides serious issues. Recent stories have continued to cite declines in total handle, wondering just what is at play. How that handle has been derived has changed dramatically, but that's not reflected in the overall numbers. Over the last century, U.S. racetracks have reported total handle on their races and, for most of that time, it was one metric that accurately depicted the health of the business. But in our modern era of simulcasting,...

Figures released last week by Equibase showed that U.S. handle declined by 5.21% in February. This comes after handle declined by 7.19% in January. For the year, that's a drop off of 6.22% and, if those numbers hold up throughout the year, total handle will be off by $750 million and the year-over-year percentage decline will be the worst the sport has suffered since 2010. And it's not just that racing has gotten off to a slow, reversible start this year when it comes to wagering. Whatever is going on,...

Bill Finley's report (Week In Review) in the Feb. 9 edition of TDN on NYRA's action to restrict wagering on its Pick 5 and Pick 6 wagers by computer-assisted wagering (CAW) players caught my attention, as does any article written on this form of wagering, which I call computer robotic wagering or bots for short. My experience with the bots and their very smart and well- capitalized owner managers goes back 20 years or so. Then, as now, my opinion on wagering by the bots is that over the long...

The Week in Review by Bill Finley It's not often in this sport that John Q. Horseplayer gets a break, but that's exactly what happened last week when it was revealed that NYRA was no longer accepting bets from the so-called computer-assisted wagering (CAW) players on its Empire Six wager. The Empire Six wager joined the Cross Country Pick 5 and the late Pick 5 as NYRA wagers that are no longer available to the CAW players. The computer players use algorithms that predict the probability of a particular outcome....

NYRA is no longer accepting wagers from customers using computer assisted wagering (CAW) programs on its Empire Six wager. The new policy took effect Feb. 4. The Empire Six joins NYRA's Late Pick 5 and the Cross Country Pick 5 as pools that are now closed to a group of bettors who use computer algorithms to place their wagers and are known for betting huge amounts, particularly when there is a large carryover in a pool or a mandatory payout day. This was the second step in a process that...