Same Shit, Different Shovel

The latest local racing industry to complain that they are struggling amidst the headwinds of online gambling is Racing NSW, in Australia.

NSW Racing is largely funded by the local betting shops that have for years operated as virtual monopolies in Australia. The TABS as they are called, have until recently enjoyed healthy wagering incomes from a largely captive customer base. And racing organization's have been well subsidized from these wagering revenues under a funding arrangement that has been in place for some time.

While the funding arrangements between Racing NSW and the are still in place, the industry that they operate in has experienced a seismic shift in betting choices available to punters. Betting exchanges like Betfair are one of hundreds of sports betting operators accepting wagering bets online, and that NSW punters may access.

Add online casino and poker rooms into the mix and the number of organizations competing for the NSW gambler's dollar swells to over 2000.

Faced with growing online betting options, the TABs revenues are down and NSW Racing are feeling the funding shortfall pinch. Australian Racing Board chairman Bob Bentley said in the The Sydney Morning Herald recently that the industry "faces the greatest challenge in our lifetime" amidst bookmakers and betting exchanges that operate as they pleased and that the result would "devastate racing".

And Bentley's not the first racing industry administrator to to cry fowl at the growth of online gambling and its impact on their industry.

Just months ago a spokesperson for Canada's Woodpine Entertainment Group said it was losing $200 million a year to online gambling. Meanwhile in Ireland, Sports Minister Martin Cullen has stated that online sports betting operators will have to contribute finds to local racing industry of face bans.