Prax caved on Preciado

[Wrongly]

http://www.drf.com/news/preciado-permitted-enter-horses-parx-starting-friday

[TGJB]

I heard the story about the \"disgruntled employee\", it\'s pretty funny. Hopefully it will become public at some point.

[TempletonPeck]

I know at least one way that it could become public! ;-)

[TGJB]

I\'m not going to do it here. But the lawyer bringing it up means they\'re going to stick with that story, so you should hear it at some point.

[TempletonPeck]

He\'s at least going to wave it around long enough to see if he can get a pound of flesh from Parx!

[Strike]

TGJB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I\'m not going to do it here. But the lawyer
> bringing it up means they\'re going to stick with
> that story, so you should hear it at some point.

It is a shame the track management (Greenwood) is handling this in such a risk averse fashion. They were sued by an exercise rider\'s family a while back (fell and tragically died) and had to fork out $7.8 million. Jockeys now have to sign a waiver to ride there. Now they are afraid of this guy and his attorney. No way Preciado could afford the cost of a federal lawsuit so caving in so early is gutless.

You watch. Racing at Parx will come to an abrupt end soon and just be a casino. They shouldn\'t be in the racing business if they act this way. Totally lame.

[richiebee]

As I see it, the problem here is that Greenwood/Parx went for the equivalent of
the NCAA\'s \"death penalty\", basically denying Preciado access to the grounds, and
in the view of the legal system, denying the man the right to ply his trade
without affording him due process of the law.

What Parx should have done is more the equivalent of Dean Wormer\'s \"double secret
probation.\" Once Parx determined that Preciado was somehow operating in a manner
detrimental to Racing, Parx should have ever so gradually began cutting back
Preciado\'s stall allocation.

My feeling here is that a gradual reduction in stalls (as opposed to banishment),
which eventually would have resulted in Preciado leaving voluntarily, would have
been much less susceptible to challenge in the courts than the \"death penalty\"
which Parx imposed.

[Silver Charm]

So if I go into a Casino in Vegas and get tossed out for counting cards all I need is a good lawyer and I can go right back in and get back to work? Am I missing something?

[Strike]

It would be interesting to test your analogy with the casino operation at Parx. I surmise that if you cheat in their casino and fight Greenwood, you would then lose. As for Vegas, you cheat and get caught your fate would be the same as OJ\'s -- one and done. They don\'t mess around. Just ask \"Girls Gone Wild\" Joe Francis.

Greenwood needs to grow a pair and clean up the racing portion of their operation. How could anyone bet a race that has a Preciado horse running?

[Topcat]

Strike Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It would be interesting to test your analogy with
> the casino operation at Parx. I surmise that if
> you cheat in their casino and fight Greenwood, you
> would then lose. As for Vegas, you cheat and get
> caught your fate would be the same as OJ\'s -- one
> and done. They don\'t mess around. Just ask \"Girls
> Gone Wild\" Joe Francis.
>
> Greenwood needs to grow a pair and clean up the
> racing portion of their operation. How could
> anyone bet a race that has a Preciado horse
> running?


There\'s the larger question of the typical gross waste of time it can be, contemplating the bust that is Parx, as a whole.   But one step at a time.

[Mathcapper]

Silver Charm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So if I go into a Casino in Vegas and get tossed
> out for counting cards all I need is a good lawyer
> and I can go right back in and get back to work?
> Am I missing something?


Guy named Ken Uston tried that many moons ago. Uston was a Harvard grad that left his prestigious job as VP of the Pacific Stock Exchange back in the late 70\'s to make a run as a professional blackjack player. He was barred for counting in Atlantic City in 1979, then sued and won in the Jersey Supreme Court, which is why you\'ll never see anything close to a one deck game in A.C. ever again.

With A.C\'s move to multideck games to combat the counters, Uston went out to Vegas, where he was eventually barred as well. He sued them too, but with the towns and casinos all in bed together he didn\'t fare nearly as well there. So out in Vegas, you can still find one and two-deck games with favorable rules, but good luck trying to beat them without getting tossed out in short order.

Uston did it for awhile, using clever disguises and posing as the \"big player\" amongst his team of trained counters. He\'d have his counters set up at various tables, and when the count turned favorable, he\'d saunter on over to that table and drop in a few big fat \"high roller\" bets. This was the same method by the way that was popularized by the MIT blackjack teams decades later in the book \"Bringing Down the House\" and the movie \'21\'. The MIT guys were given credit for being some kind of mathematical geniuses, but all they really did was mimic the method Uston invented decades earlier.

Uston eventually gave up on Vegas after many backroom beatings and his inevitable listing on Vegas\'s black book, after which he could barely take a step into a casino without getting immediately tossed. If anyone\'s interested, he wrote some great autobiographical books on his blackjack escapades and his dealings with the court systems in both A.C. and Vegas. The one about Vegas and his fight with the courts, \"Ken Uston on Blackjack\", was a particularly engaging and fascinating story.

[Topcat]

Mathcapper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Silver Charm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So if I go into a Casino in Vegas and get
> tossed
> > out for counting cards all I need is a good
> lawyer
> > and I can go right back in and get back to
> work?
> > Am I missing something?
>
>
> Guy named Ken Uston tried that many moons ago.
> Uston was a Harvard grad that left his prestigious
> job as VP of the Pacific Stock Exchange back in
> the late 70\'s to make a run as a professional
> blackjack player. He was barred for counting in
> Atlantic City in 1979, then sued and won in the
> Jersey Supreme Court, which is why you\'ll never
> see anything close to a one deck game in A.C. ever
> again.
>
> With A.C\'s move to multideck games to combat the
> counters, Uston went out to Vegas, where he was
> eventually barred as well. He sued them too, but
> with the towns and casinos all in bed together he
> didn\'t fare nearly as well there. So out in Vegas,
> you can still find one and two-deck games with
> favorable rules, but good luck trying to beat them
> without getting tossed out in short order.
>
> Uston did it for awhile, using clever disguises
> and posing as the \"big player\" amongst his team of
> trained counters. He\'d have his counters set up at
> various tables, and when the count turned
> favorable, he\'d saunter on over to that table and
> drop in a few big fat \"high roller\" bets. This was
> the same method by the way that was popularized by
> the MIT blackjack teams decades later in the book
> \"Bringing Down the House\" and the movie \'21\'. The
> MIT guys were given credit for being some kind of
> mathematical geniuses, but all they really did was
> mimic the method Uston invented decades earlier.
>
> Uston eventually gave up on Vegas after many
> backroom beatings and his inevitable listing on
> Vegas\'s black book, after which he could barely
> take a step into a casino without getting
> immediately tossed. If anyone\'s interested, he
> wrote some great autobiographical books on his
> blackjack escapades and his dealings with the
> court systems in both A.C. and Vegas. The one
> about Vegas and his fight with the courts, \"Ken
> Uston on Blackjack\", was a particularly engaging
> and fascinating story.


Uston was indeed an engaging writer . . . and could play standards Erroll Garner-style on the keyboard almost as well as the diminutive Pittsburgh native could . . .