Burning the Midnight Wagering

The night rolls into the next morning and nobody notices in the smoky lounge at Hollywood Park Casino. Racing forms, overflowing ashtrays and empty beer bottles clutter linen-covered tables.

Julie Kwan and Siu Fung are busy betting some of the $200 each brought for simulcast horse races from their native Hong Kong. It’s well into Saturday afternoon there--16 hours ahead of Los Angeles--and the horses are going to post at Sha Tin Racecourse.

Kwan and Fung study past performances while watching five large video screens scattered around the Hong Kong Turf Club. The setting is nothing like its namesake, but it makes them feel at home.

They’re not the only ones. Expatriates from Hong Kong also pack some tracks on the East Coast and in Canada to bet on races in their homeland.

“The main thing is to come here and relax,” said Kwan, an accountant from suburban Monterey Park.

“I bet most of them,” Fung said of the nine-race card that concludes about 2 a.m. “If I win a little bit, maybe I’ll bet more.”

That’s what Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard likes to hear.

“In our casino, we have a tremendous amount of Asian players and we felt they might be interested in the Hong Kong races,” he said. “That turned out be absolutely true.”

California law prohibits simulcasting full-card racing from other U.S. tracks, so two years ago Hubbard purchased the Hong Kong signal as a way to boost revenue.

Hubbard said the track has doubled its Hong Kong handle since starting in 1995 with a small area off the casino floor and two mutuel clerks.

Now, patrons wager on Hong Kong either from the crowded casino floor or the smaller Turf Club with up to four Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking clerks. They munch on a buffet of noodles, rice soups and vegetable dishes.

“They can interact in their native language. They’re comfortable and they don’t want to have to work at it,” said Tom Bowling, casino general manager.

Although the betting volume doesn’t come close to matching Hong Kong, mutuel clerk Mary Tom said Hollywood Park patrons shell out big bucks.

“I have some people who do a $100 exacta on 13 horses and that’s $1,300,” she said. “They back it up with a $50 quinella. With one race they can lose $2,000 in a matter of minutes. Some people come to enjoy the racing, but others come here to make it.”

On 15 Hong Kong racing dates from January to June last year, bettors wagered nearly $4 million at Hollywood Park for an average of $91,351.

Hubbard said the signal costs 3% to 5% of the track’s total handle. That works out to about $14,713 on last year’s 15-day average handle of $4.4 million.

“The money we’re betting on Hong Kong and the other (simulcast) races is very small compared to the Hollywood Park races,” he said, adding that 99% of the money bet in California is wagered on in-state races.

Simulcasting has hurt racing in smaller states, like Illinois, where importing full cards from other U.S. tracks is allowed. Of the money bet there, only 48% is on in-state races.

Hubbard said he’s near a deal to send Hollywood Park’s live card to Australia and New Zealand.

Even with Los Angeles’ fierce competition for the entertainment dollar, there’s plenty of horse racing at all hours.

A fan could arrive in time for Canadian races at 10 a.m., bet on Hollywood Park’s live card, continue with Australian races at 5:30 p.m., and with any leftover money, wager on Hong Kong action starting at 9:30 p.m. Friday or Saturday.

On the main floor of the 24-hour casino--the first built at a U.S. racetrack--patrons can bet while playing blackjack, poker or Pai Gow.

D. Wayne Lukas, a leading trainer, doesn’t see the lure of wagering on unfamiliar horses 7,200 miles away.

“Racing is knowing the horses,” he said. “The guy that’s betting on Hong Kong is either a total degenerate or he’s from there. Australian racing, I think it’s wonderful, but who follows that?”

Sondra and Robert Webb of Inglewood disagree. Both math teachers were the only non-Chinese in the sixth-floor turf club on a recent Friday, where the Cantonese broadcast didn’t stop Mrs. Webb from placing her bet on a touch screen machine.

“You know how it is when you’re illiterate, you just look at the pictures,” she joked. “It’s a universal language--numbers, money and horses. I bring $100 and hope it swells to $200 or $300.”

The appeal of Hong Kong racing lies in the large fields, long odds and huge payoffs. Most races feature 14 horses, with the dash to the wire resembling a cavalry charge.

Hollywood Park races average eight entries with odds not much higher than 10-1. In Hong Kong, where horse racing is the most popular sport, odds of 100-1 are common.

“It’s an easy way to get rich in Hong Kong. That’s why it’s so attractive,” said Kam Kwong, a former radio racing commentator in his native land who acts as informal handicapper at Hollywood Park.

Charles Wong, who called friends in Hong Kong for racing tips before heading to the track, noticed how it’s mostly quiet, except for a few anguished shouts when horses charge the finish line.

“If we were in Hong Kong when the horse is racing, there’s a lot of yelling, ‘Go, go,”’ the engineering student said.

Said Tom, the mutuel clerk: “One thing about Chinese is they don’t show emotion like people over here. It’s just the custom.”