Of all the numbers, and most of them are downright staggering, none hit me more than this one.
In just four months of operation, people have wagered (give or take a few thou) some 650 million dollars at Presque Isle Downs.
That’s not government spending where a billion here and a billion there add up to real money.
That’s 650 million actual dollars put into machines by real people like you and me, people who earned that cash over decades of work.
Granted, 90 percent of that comes back as winnings so all is not lost.
But 10 percent is split between the casino and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and that nearly 66 million dollars is forever out of pocket.
More striking still is the fact that the crowd is largely women and the retired, what one bemused bartender called “geriatric day care.”
Every day they come, some by car but many by bus, to feed the meters over and over and over again, 150 million bet each month, 35 million bet each week, five million bet each and every day.
And we’re just beginning to get into the busy summer tourist season.
Final work is being completed on the track where live horse racing will join simulcast betting on September 1st.
The total purse for an 8-race card should approach 200,000 dollars.
Every day.
Like I said, downright staggering.
Look, people who have spent their working lives earning their retirement money have also earned the right to spend that money any way they please.
They can sit in the back yard in their underwear and throw dollar bills into the camp fire for all I care.
But you have to shake your head and wonder what that kind of financial energy harnessed in another direction could achieve.
One thing’s for certain, the old song lyric from Glenn Frey was right on:
The lure of easy money has got a very strong appeal.
Bet on it.
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