Average daily handle dropped 18.3% in the Hollywood Park autumn meet that concluded on Sunday.
The average for the 40-day meet was $8.95-million, compared to $10.96-million over 32 dates in 2007.
The on-track average declined 21.6%, from $1.3-million in 2007 to $1.05-million this year. On-track attendance also swooned, from 4,944 in 2007 to 4,353 in ’08.
A block on advanced deposit wagering from out-of-state players bogged down the handle over the first 17 days of the meet. The ADW average for meet was $1.4-million, down 22.8% from 2007. During the dispute that curtailed out-of-state wagers, the average ADW handle was $993,320.
In the 23 days following the resolution, average handle dipped 15.2% to $9.3-million.
“Although we came close during our summer meeting to matching our record-setting meeting of 2007, we ran into a double whammy in the fall with the poor economy and an unexpected ADW standoff,” Hollywood President Jack Liebau said. “The ADW average handle was down more than 43% from 2007 during the first 17 days of the meeting when players residing outside of California could not bet on Hollywood Park races.
“The decrease in business affected everyone as purses had to be cut,” Liebau added. “The ADW average jumped more than $600,000 a day once out-of-state wagering came back on line with the four major ADW providers in late November, putting our figures in line with the national trend.”
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