Horse racing and gambling: comparing attitudes and preferences of racetrack patrons and residents of Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Thoroughbred breeding and racing has survived on the ability of racing administrators to capture gambling revenue, whether it is proximal, remote or virtual. Given this relationship, there is surprisingly little academic work on the perceptions of gambling, preferences for different forms of gambling, preferences for different types of thoroughbred races that may facilitate gambling, and the relationships between viewing thoroughbred races and gambling on these events. We address this important gap in the literature through a study involving racing patrons at two Sydney racecourses, including midweek and weekend racing meetings, and a corresponding study of four Sydney suburbs, with differing socio-economic characteristics. Our research highlights the variety of attitudes to gambling and the diversity of gambling experiences among participants. It situates contemporary technological innovations such as internet gambling within a longer history of approaches to revenue capture that address the impermanence of existing borders and revenue arrangements based on the control of defined space.

赛马饲养及竞赛取决于赛马管理者从赌金中吸金的能力, 不管是那种货币形式。鉴于这种关系, 对于对赌博的认知; 对于不同赌博形式的洗好; 对于不同的赛马形式的喜欢可能会助长赌博的兴趣; 以及观看赛马比赛和赌马的关系等研究的工作量就小的惊人了。我们把这种明显的差别写成文献, 研究的样本包括来自悉尼的两个周中周末运营的赛马场的顾客, 以及悉尼四个社会职能分工不同的城区。我们的研究着重于对赌博态度的多样化以及有着不同经历赌徒们的反应。本文通过把诸如网络赌博的现代技术发明放置于历史更长久的吸金方法从而淡化了对于特定地区控制的先有界线和收入安排。

A criação de puro-sangue e o turfe sobreviveram pela habilidade de administradores de corridas em capturar a receita de apostas, sejam elas no local, remotas ou virtuais. Dada essa relação, há surpreendentemente poucos trabalhos acadêmicos sobre percepções de apostas, preferências por diferentes formas de aposta, preferências por diferentes tipos de corridas de puro-sangue que possam facilitar as apostas, e sobre relações entre assistir corridas de puro-sangue e apostar nesses eventos. Abordamos essa importante lacuna na literatura através de um estudo envolvendo apostadores de turfe em dois hipódromos de Sydney, incluindo páreos realizados durante a semana e no final de semana e um estudo correspondente de quatro subúrbios de Sydney, como diferentes características socioeconômicas. Nossa pesquisa destaca a variedade de atitudes com o jogo de apostas e as diversas experiências de jogo entre seus participantes. Ela situa as inovações tecnológicas contemporâneas, como as apostas pela internet, dentro de uma longa história de abordagens na captação de receita, que lida com a impermanência de acordos sobre fronteiras e receitas, baseados no controle de um espaço definido.

Keywords:

• gambling
• geography
• leisure
• sport

关键字:

• 赌博
• 布局
• 休闲
• 体育

Palavras Chave:

• apostas
• geografia
• lazer
• esporte

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants in this research, the editors of Leisure Studies and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on an earlier version of this article. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council through ARC DP077379.