Revisiting Regulation: Why the Reins Should be Loosened on Thoroughbred Horse Racing
1 August 2001
By Louis Guth with Michael D. Shagan, a business consultant and lawyer specializing in horse racing and gaming
The plain fact is that pari-mutuel thoroughbred racing is perhaps the last industry in America subject to comprehensive economic regulation. The issue is not simply that present racetrack fans -- and potential new fans -- would be better off if racetracks could compete fully and fairly for the wagering dollar. It is that they will be clearly worse off if regulation continues. In these circumstances, economic regulation is a pure drag on the ability of racetracks to compete for consumer dollars by dint of creative pricing, marketing and distribution. To put it more bluntly, everyone -- the racetracks, horse owners and certainly the betting public -- would be better off if racetracks were subjected to the discipline of consumer demand rather than to the judgments of regulators and legislators. In this article the authors discuss the reasons the time has come to deregulate thoroughbred horse racing, and the benefits that will follow.
This article was published by The Milken Institute in The Milken Institute Review, Third Quarter, 2001.
