'08 U.S. Wager Down Over $1 Billion From '07

Published: January 6, 2009 05:09 pm EST

According to data released today by Equibase, in 2008 wagering on horse racing in the United States reached its lowest level in a decade, more than $1 billion less than in 2007

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In '08, wagering in the U.S. declined by 7.2%. A total of $13,670,196,938 was wagered on the American racing product. That handle, over $13.6 billion, includes commingled wagering numbers from separate pool wagering in Canada. A total of $14,723,993,055 was wagered in 2007.

Notably, wagering drastically went south in December of 2008, as amount wagered decreased by a drastic 20.3%.

The $13.6 billion wagered in 2008 marked the first time since 1998 that the wager fell below $14 billion.

(With files from Equibase)

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bet if you look at the amount of race dates versus previous years, the decrease in handle would be directly correlated. don't take a genius to figure it out.

Canada's stock market went down about 38%, so -7.2 % can be viewed, in hard times,as positive.Declines at the Ontario, Kentucky and Harrisburg sales were also nowhere near 38%. Sport,entertainment with free admission and the possibility of a successful wager should be advertised more.Saturday and Sunday afternoons would help. Show some of those nice$$$$$ SFA, Tri and W4 payoffs in ads-but only in the newspapers that still print racing news.

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