Richard Sklar Admitted to Fixing More Than a Thousand Horse Races Essay

As most people know, horse racing is a contest of speed between two or more horses. Usually thoroughbred. To most people it would seem that horse-racing was the purest sport imaginable. With tracks monitored by overlapping cameras and gates controlled by computers, it seems like the honest man's game. Horse-racing is a 15 billion dollar a year industry and the 2nd most widely attended spectator sport after baseball. It started around 4500 bc in central Asia and for thousands of years was the sport of kings and nobility. The main reason horse-racing is still around today is for the legalized gambling. Horse-racing is a major professional sport in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and the U.S. The most popular form of racing is thoroughbred racing. But other forms of racing are harness racing, steeple chase racing, and quarter horse racing. The legalized gambling is the main reason for horse racings long life. All the betting done in American tracks is under the "Pari-mutuel wagering system". Under this system, 14 to 25 of the amount wagered is taken out for track operating expenses, racing purses, and state and local taxes. The remaining sum is divided by the number of individual wagers to determine the payoff or return on your bet. The odds of the next race are automatically calculated by the tracks computers and displayed to the betters on screens during the betting period. The odds are updated automatically every minute. If the odds of a certain horse winning are 21, you'll get 2 dollars for every one that you wager. Say, for instance, that you bet 100 for a certain horse to win, you will receive 200 back. You can bet for a horse to win, place, or show. If you bet for the horse to win it has to get 1st, for it to place that would be 1st or 2nd. And to show is 1st, 2nd, or...

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