14,000 - THROUGH THE GATE

Thanks for the debate all - very insightful

I guess I'm a horse addict, not a gambling addict, so my views are largely skewed from that perspective. I have little interest in gambling, other than from an academic perspective in trying to work out what other people find so fascinating about it.

I think I've bought one lottery ticket in my life and find the number of bets and bet types on offer on racing totally overwhelming (plus I'm pretty rubbish at it), so I largely don't bother other than for a fun win / place bet on a personal favourite (or something whose tail I'm hanging on !!).

It is fascinating to try and understand it from a different point of view - but I must be honest, if I had no love of the horse, I would not be attracted to the game at all.

So I guess from a horse-loving point of view, I would like the stories of the horses and the people to be marketed better and feel that that would bring more (mostly horse loving) foot traffic through the door (I'll let you judge whether this is desirable or not !).

As gamblers, what do you feel could / should be used to market the game to outsiders ? More bets? Less bets? Big tote wins ?

Addicts normally have more than one vice(perhaps they drink a bit) so i'd use that for on course productions - I would be looking to attract people only between the legal age of 18-30 - Target singles not people with kids - Aim more for males though females can be used to get the males to the track( ladies night) - lots more but not really comfortable trying to get youngsters addicted anymore as I cannot see what gambling can add to their lives. I live with my disease and I would be really sad if my child became a gambler.

I only find it an addiction when I am losing and hate the meetings

pirates Wrote:

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> ANY OF THOSE 14000 at turfontein today ?

This is a great thread. Pirates' question is a hot knife thru butter.

Great to see new faces at the races, but did they bet or did they get pissed? If they only back for the next party, did we grow racing or just get extra use of our facilities?

Granted, it cannot be a bad thing to attract many people. But if I watch the comrades marathon once a year, that hardly has me subscribing to SA Runner magazine. I take it we are looking to convert people to the real faith of hard core gambling in either of the vicious guises of Ownership or Punting?

In general this forum has a split personality. One firm view is that a genuine failure has occurred by the shrinkage of participants. Less tracks, owners, horses, punters, stakes etc in real terms. The other view is our insanity to ever own or punt. Looking back, there is hardly a single writer who hasn't expressed both extreme love and extreme hate for the same things over time. Normally one would see a shrink at this point.

pirates Wrote:

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> ANY OF THOSE 14000 at turfontein today ?

mister a [ PM ]
Re: Phumelela and the Competition Commission
May 03, 2012 10:40PM Registered: 5 years ago
Posts: 458

you are right pirates Phumelela have told me they concentrate on the R20 punter in the tote as they have found through studies that the bulk of their income comes from this group,, they feel that only a small minority own and use computers so no need to cater for them

now if this is to be believed then racing is in serious trouble - When i venture into a tote I’m normally one of the younger punters at 43 years old - SA life expectancy for males is around 49 so unless a huge amount of youngsters start punting the customer base for racing will be dead in 7-10 years. Soccer and sport bets will have to save racing

Mr H the operators and even individuals withn the two operators dont speak wth one voice when it comes to anything racing. I put money down that somone in another silo of power would deny this outright. But the realties tell the story.