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Smart on smart

By Jay Cronley
Special to ESPN.com

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Each time you make a bet at the horse races, it's as though you're tipping around 20 percent. That can be like tipping a waiter 20 percent to bring you bugs in your soup. At the horse races, the house lifts anywhere from 17 to 25 percent off the tops of all bets, of all wagering pools, say 20 percent, on average. There's no "house edge" of 17 or 20 percent. It's more like a house rule. The house cut goes for making the game, for providing the site, the pari-mutuel system of watering where th ...

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