Beulah Mess

[RainMan]

I am normally a "fly under the radar" player but I have a tournament concern that I wanted to share. Although it probaby did not cost me more than $300, I am 100% certain that my official scores were flawed at last weekend's Beulah Tournament. Here is the scenario. I hit a cap horse and a couple of other mid-rangers right off the bat on both tickets to put me out front early on. However, my balances were not matching up with the official tote. I figured this was probably due to the fact Beulah had cancelled live racing prior to the 1st race and even though I went back and cancelled my tickets perhaps there was some time delay in the system. Eventually, I asked the tournament director to take a look at my "A" entry which was still in the lead because I felt that my score was not accurate. He showed me a list of my bets which included a wager at Calder in which I never made. After reviewing my tickets and personal scoresheet, he agreed to have that bet deleted thus crediting my account an additional $4.00. He said that this would take a little while so I didn't make a big deal of the fact that both of my entries' balances continued to be out of whack for the remainder of the day. After hitting a cold streak, I connected again on my "B" ticket and suddenly was in great shape with $120+ on each entry and five remaining picks. However, I couldn't close the deal and when the smoke settled I had $123.60 on my "A" entry and $128.60 on my "B" entry. Since I knew that I had now missed out on a qualifying spot and suppossedly all entries were audited, I just hung around to see who had won. When the top 15 was listed, I noticed that I was in 10th and collected $1000 and finsihed 16th on my alternate entry. However, after checking my tickets for a dozen times I now realize that the 10th place finish was $4.00 high and should have been a 14th place finish and my 16th place finish was $8.00 short and should have been in 10th place.
I did call Beulah just to ask to have the results reviewed but was informed that the tournament was erased from the tote system. Here is my major concern. Was this just a mistake in the tote system or by a mutual teller or is it possible that a tournament leader can be sabotaged by an unscrupulous competitor placing a couple loosing bets using the leader's entry number?

[OPM]

Usually they can track who places the bet with video(at least in Vegas). I don't know about the track. It's also illegal to tamper with a sporting event and can lead to serious problems for you.
But, to answer your question, it can happen but there are serious consequences.

[Donnie]

RainMan---
Don't know if that was the problem, someone entering your number, but my totals didn't jibe with my record-keeping that day. The best I can calculate on my "A" ticket, is that I shorted myself one play. But even after scratching the BEU race off my personal scoresheet, I still played exactly 15 plays. They show me $4 higher, which can only mean one of my plays was not calculated in. My "B" ticket, which had one place horse on it for 15 plays, did not match the price the monitor showed. Since I was no where near contention, why bother...?? Interesting that you bring this forward.....I thought maybe I was the only one with mis-calculated tickets.

[Mall]

For those not there, in order to put a play in you had to show the mutuel clerk a card with your number(s), issued at registration, and which was worn around the neck. Hard for me to fathom how someone other than the person with that card could put a play in.

My best guess re what might explain the $4 discrepancies: Right after the Beu races were cancelled, they made an announcement that everyone who made plays on the first Beu race, which was the vast majority of contestants, had to physically go to a mutuel clerk and have the ticket cancelled. That led to such long lines at the windows that it appeared those trying to make optional plays on other tracks might be shut out, so one or two of the lines were dedicated to just those who were trying to make plays. While that process was still going on, they made a second announcement that if you had not yet gone to the clerk and cancelled your Beu play, you no longer had to, as it would be done for you automatically by the tote system. (As an aside, I'm pretty sure a similar situation arose later in the contest for plays made on the early Hol races.).

My wife went to the windows and cancelled her Beu plays, and I see looking at the complete list that her total on the entry where her only winner was the cap horse which won the last race at Aqu is $60, not $64. I did not physically go to the window and cancel my Beu play, and I'm pretty sure---but not 100% positive--- my total is not $4 less than it should be. In other words, I think it's possible that at least some of the contestants who had a mutuel clerk cancel their Beu plays had $4 deducted from their accounts twice, while others who didn't might have had $4 added to their account.

Assuming I'm right, that probably did not effect the outcome, in light of the prize structure and the more than $7 difference in the totals of the last individuals who did and did not qualify. Of course, even if I'm right, in terms of the big picture that doesn't matter. What we need, and what Players Panel member dehere is currently working on, is a uniform and reliable scoring and leaderboard system. At this point, I'm still hopeful one will be in place for the 2008 qualifying contests.

[timh]

I just checked my total and I was also short by $4.00 on my ticket that finished 12th. That extra money would have put me in the $1,000 prize money range, but not qualifying.

I did not cancel my wager at Beulah so have to assume that was the problem.
That does raise the question as to how then did I make 16 bets in the contest if that one was not cancelled ?

[RainMan]

It seems like I was not the only player whose scores were inaccurate. Looking back there was another possible problem with the scoring. Going into the last contest race I had used all 15 plays on my "A" ticket and made a final losing play on my "B" ticket. However, with a minute left to post I decided to double-check that I had been credited for 15 picks on my "A" ticket. So, I asked a tournament official and two mutual clerks to help me and they all said to simply make another bet and if all 15 plays had been used then the tote machine would lock out the account and not issue the bet. Well, the machine did give me a 16th ticket and looking back I doubt that this entry was audited as officially finished in 16th place but should have been in the top ten. I guess you could have bet every contest race and the machine would have kept spitting out tickets.
In response to having to show your entry number to make a bet, some mutual clerks may have been checking but this is not enforced at most tournaments. At the Churchill tournament I was almost shut out becasue the guy in front of me was making 6 plays in a tournament that limited you to only three entries. And, if you want to really see larceny in action, hang around the windows at the HWS. This is a contest where you only have one entry and I witnessed one of the champions playing a handful of entries. Also, some of the top 15 last year were not even in attendance. I have previously recommended to the NHC for photo ID's but this has not happened yet. The fact is that I had a Calder bet on an entry that I never made. Yes, this was probably the case of a mutual clerk punching in the wrong entry# for another contestant. But, it is also possible for a player to make a bogus bet under another entry# - and the chances of this happening is more likely if someone has a big lead early on.

[Donnie]

I did not physically cancel my BEU race, as I figured we had all day to do it. Then with the anouncement, they said I would not need to do this. Did they then wipe out one of my other plays along with the BEU race? I guess we'll never know. I did hold up my card which had 2 numbers on it and always spoke the number I wanted to place a bet on. So unless the clerk was not listening and just looking, that could be a problem. But I do write down each bet and track as we go. Too bad the player numbers were not printing on the tickets....I did write the number at the window on each ticket as played to keep my auditing straight!

[njcurveball]

WOW! This does sound like quite a mess.

I played in a similar format tourney at Harrington and they gave out updates from what looked like an Excel spreadsheet. That was when they just allowed win/place betting so I hope they have a better system now that they are offering all kinds of exotic betting as well.

The most amazing thing from the times Connecticut did everything "by hand", was that I never heard even one whisper of something not 100% honest.

Remember, this use to be a tourney where you turned in a written sheet and it was placed in a folder. I was very scared of this, as it seemed to be the easiest thing to do to turn in a sheet with no horse number and "pay off" the clerk to simply fill it in a few times.

Given that I won day money at the last one of these "mythical money" tourneys with just one cap horse, I totally believe these contests were 100% honest, 100% of the time.

If my "conspiracy theory" brain seems strange, please remember I use to bowl tournaments where you kept score "by hand" as well. It was not uncommon back then to see the same person keeping score for the winner, 2nd AND 3rd place bowlers or something strange like that.

I guess I should add, these same people might bowl a few times and when watched their scores would not even compare to when they were bowling by themselves.

Some of the luckiest scorekeepers around back then, I am sure! :D

[km]

KEE contest a few years ago had s similar snafu and they sent everyone their money back with an apology letter and added a few more qualifiers (including someone from HTR) - that's taking responsibility and making up for a mistake

BEU seems to be burying their head in the sand

[timh]

Just got round to looking at my other ticket which was standing at $42.00.

This ticket had one winner that paid $28.00 and $10.00 and was thus OVER by $4.00.

However, on this ticket I only made 14 plays (did'nt bother making a last selection since even a cap horse would'nt have done any good).

If this ticket was $4 under I could understand--being relative with my other ticket.
If it was correct I could understand because maybe one could say that the missed play and the score error cancelled each other out.
But for it to be $4 over makes no sense whatsoever to me.

[Immanuel Kant]

just want to add that my totals (2 entries) at Beulah were not off....(as to my handicapping the word "off" does not do it justice).....I did not cancel my wagers on Beu Race 1 as I was told it was done automatically, and in my case it appears to have been done correctly.