Betting via computer

[classicliberty]

I thought the thread on betting as a profession where kentsmith was quite sure that betting on the races couldn\'t ever be profitable long-term was great and the responses showing him why and how playing the races could be profitable were well thought out.

Rebates were mentioned several times and an important factor but something happened to me a couple of weeks ago and I am wondering if anyone else has had this happen.  I currently bet via a US site that rebates between 2% and 11% (depending on track/type of bet).  I have had enough history with them where I am sure, should they care, that they have identified me as a winning player (my return over the last several years, before rebates has varies between 7- 15%).

Anyway, one of the tracks I concentrate on I know very, very well.  It is a small track with limited pools.  What I mean by that is I know pretty much exactly what payoffs to expect based on the results and it is common for there to be very few, sometimes no tickets alive, for example in the pick 3 or pick 5, despite a favorite winning in the sequence combined very playable mid-priced winners.   A couple of weeks ago, after a series of \"upsets,\" I was alive to a single in the last leg of the pick 5.  This horse was not the morning line favorite and wasn\'t the actual favorite at the close of betting.  Before seeing the probable payoffs, I was sure I was going to be the only live ticket.  However, instead of getting \"x\" for a payoff, I was getting \"1/3x\" as there were two other live tickets to my horse in addition to mine.  There were no other live tickets to any other horses in the race.  I was stunned.  It made no sense to me and if you saw the prior pick 3 payoffs during this pick 5 sequence and the winning horses race by race, you would probably also be stunned.

Obviously I know that some fluke could have happened, someone played their numbers, or liked the names, or who knows.  But another thought I had, was, what if the betting site I was using identified winning players and \"piggybacked\" onto those players and basically duplicated the bets made by that player?  I am sure, in the past, many a bookie made a living by booking the action of the guys/gals that lost, but layed off the action of the few that won.

So now, in the age of computer betting, why wouldn\'t those companies do the same or am I just paraniod?

[Boscar Obarra]

No way to say without proof, but it would not surprise me if that was happening. It\'s too tempting and since it is probably not illegal, why wouldn\'t they do it?

 Let\'s say they have 100 players that win. If they piggyback them all, its a certainty that they too will win. They are limited only by the pool size and not betting too much and killing the odds.

 Now that you\'ve brought it up, if they weren\'t doing this, they will be starting tomorrow.

[joekay]

Back in the day, right after tracks began allowing betting and cashing at the same window, I had 2 to 3 tellers who would copy my bets, usually betting much more than I would.  Now I use the machines.