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>> _no longer operate without the poker machines

Horse racing. All over the world there are tracks where horses run, and people bet on the horses, but that isn't why they exist. The track's gambling license, something first granted back when the track was built, is now used to facilitate an attached "casino". The horses are cover for the casino and the casino is just cover for the real money makers of the enterprise: an arcade of slot machines. Corruption for sure, but the "sport" of horse racing probably wouldn't have survived absent that corruption.

>>sandwo+(OP)
That and an excuse for people to get drunk. /s

I don’t know how HN views horse riding, but “no more horse racing” probably would have resulted in a lot less dead and injured horses, so maybe horse-racing should have died out.

>>Fridge+L7
Fewer dead horses on the track, but if the sport went away then there would be horses all over the country out of work, which generally doesn't end well for horses, and likely an overall reduction in the number of horses kept as pets.

>>sandwo+ka
A reduction in the total number of horses bred or kept is not a problem. It's probably a good thing.

>>Fridge+L7
I like when horses die on the racetrack. A symbolic sacrifice.