Nothing Is on the Level: The View From Someone Who’s Played the Game and Beat It

I never went to that Arizona Racing Symposium despite being invited. Zero interest. None. talk is cheap. Pass. It was less likely I’d write about it but today I had to. Walk away from the game or write. I chose write and maybe some of you will get why.

As ironic as betamethasone now being legal, the ones watching are the ones making the ones trying to do it right look like a ship of fools. There are many in this game who care, do it right, and try every single day. They are from every aspect of the sport. Then there is this. Unfortunately.

I didn’t come into this game soft. I was born into it and around it my whole life. I know every pitfall. I didn’t fall off a truck clutching a $2 win ticket. I came in through the fire — a large everyday bettor who not only survived but beat the game hard and consistently. I adapted with the times. I evolved. When the landscape shifted, I shifted with it. I became a strike-when-I-want-to, pick-my-spots, take-down-scores player. I welcomed the new era.
CAWs? Big bettors? Models? Algorithms? Bring them all. My mentality was simple:

This is my game and I’ll play it against anyone, anytime, anywhere.

But here’s the thing: I’m no fool. I know the difference between a skill game and three-card monte. And I know if you sit at a table and can’t identify the mark, congratulations — you’re it.

I both dealt and played poker in Brooklyn and the City long before half the people running this sport ever made their first losing win/place/show bet. I’ve seen every angle, every move, every “trust me” pitch that really meant “trust me until you bust.”

And if there’s one thing I know, it’s this:

History doesn’t just repeat — it mocks you for not paying attention.

The White Sox scandal.
Tim Donaghy and the NBA ref scandal.
The Arizona State point-shaving scandal.
The NFL injury report betting scandals.
The Breeders’ Cup Fix Six — still the most infamous tote manipulation in racing history.
Maximum Security and the “not exactly racing clean” Kentucky Derby.
College baseball coaches betting against their own teams.
Boxing dives from here to eternity.
The recent sports betting scandal involving professional athletes. Even Pete Rose.

And now? We pretend racing exists in some angelic vacuum immune to temptation, corruption, or plain old incompetence? Take a look at some of the UK racing betting scandals, they make the US look like choirboys.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me a third time — well, then I deserve to get clipped.

I was foolish enough to think that if I narrowed my play to the biggest pools on the biggest days, I’d at least be playing into something approximating a level field. Derby Day. Breeders’ Cup. The days when liquidity supposedly buffers nonsense. When all eyes were watching and all was clean, straight and everyone was in to win. I actually believed I could beat anyone who ever played this game on the square. And I still do and can — on the square.

But what happens when nothing is square? What happens when just one spoke on the wheel is bent?

Who was it that said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”? Lord Acton. The truth of it rings louder than attribution ever will.

Someone else said something that stuck with me too, and while the wording may vary depending on who you ask:
“Nothing is on the level.”

Look around racing right now and try to tell me that’s not the thesis statement of the modern bettor’s existence.

This Is What They Think of Us

With all these sermons about transparency, you’d think the industry was run by Swiss bankers, not racetracks juggling shrinking handles and outdated systems. Yet two things happened recently that slap you right in the face if you’re awake.

1. The Cockfighting Video

A video that purports to show one of the top riders in the world — maybe even two — at a cockfight, appearing to not just be there but engaged in what could be illegal gambling like it wasn’t his first rodeo, surfaces and…

Crickets.

No denial.
No confirmation.
No investigation.
No statement.
No nothing.

Just “Ignore it and it will go away.” All while they preach, “It’s all about the horse,” “integrity,” and “transparency.” Really?

We regulate whip strikes like felonies but cockfighting — a federal crime — gets the silent treatment?

Please.

Anyone who thinks every time one of these incidents occurs, the participants get caught is either delusional, naïve, or willfully asleep. Do you believe that? Because I don’t. Not for one second. Maybe if all your head does is separate your ears you believe that.

2. The Arizona Racing Symposium: Transparency Theater

Patrick Cummings, one of the few truly sharp voices representing horseplayers, gets on stage to fight the good fight — to speak for the bettors this industry is desperate to keep.

Meanwhile, the head of the TRPB — the very group that oversees tote integrity and CAW monitoring — took the mic, fielded questions and…

Declined to answer anything about the tote system or oversight.

You can’t make this up.

Transparency? Not today.
Not tomorrow.
Not ever, apparently.

Why even show up? To talk about the Arizona weather? To read the room and still disrespect it?

Pat said on X, “No disrespect,” in follow up but honestly, he was nicer than they deserved. That declination didn’t just disrespect horseplayers — it spit in our faces.

Shut Up and Bet: The New Industry Motto

Everywhere you look:

Late odds drops.
Last-second CAW batches.
Exotic payouts that are short, and I mean short.
Past-posting allegations.
Tote systems old enough to qualify for Social Security.

But the message from the top?

“Trust us and bet.”

Like we’re suckers.
Like we’re marks.
Like there’s a sucker born every minute and racing doesn’t mind raising the next batch.

Let them eat cake.

As a calculated gambler with patience and discipline — a guy who plays to win and only makes what I call good bets — horse racing is doing everything possible to make that more challenge than game.

And trust me, I know BS when I see it.

The Bottom Line

The game isn’t dead.
But it’s not clean.
It’s not transparent.
And it sure isn’t level.

Maybe nothing ever was. But don’t sell me “integrity” while ducking questions about the tote system. Don’t preach “all about the horse” while ignoring videos that would get any groom or hotwalker fired by sunrise. Don’t weaponize whip rules while pretending illegal gambling doesn’t matter. And don’t tell me the future of racing lies with bettors while treating bettors like they’re expendable fools.

I can beat the game. I’ve beaten it longer and harder than most ever will. But I can’t — and won’t — beat a setup. Nobody can except those in on the setup.

History teaches the lesson.
Human nature writes the script.
Money provides the motive.
And racing keeps pretending none of it applies to them.

Nothing is on the level? Some days, it sure feels like the most honest line in the whole sport. Nobody wants to shoot craps with funny looking dice.

Memories: