With inflation taken into consideration, a $3,000,000 handle in the late 90's which they had, and today, would of had a $6mil buying power today.
The fact of the matter is Gural is not from the gambling biz and this BigM thing took more than just that, guarantees, and instead he gambled.
Casinos could do this easily, money goes here, then we make ours, bottom line is in the black, they also don't go where there is resistance and if they do they make it worthwhile, have the lobby money power and relationships too.
No casino wanted the BigM and dropped Gural as a partner because the BigM lobby was a failure, otherwise he was a very attractive as a partner to that end.
Gural didn't cause the downfall of racing.
It and even he are overwhelmed with corruption, and bureaucracy, old incestuous racing related relationships that smothered his good efforts with bad, subsidize meaningful with CAW disgruntling his base.
A strong force that bent and caved rather than totally fail, nicely put, he adapted.
None of us agree with everything he's done, he did some stuff not so great too, not "capital crimes" but avoidable, he maybe adapted too well to that environment.
The BigM is not Yonkers, they are a deep disappointment to the non horseman participants.
Tragic. Equal to worse tragedies elsewhere. Death even.
Gural will get what he wants and more importantly needs next year. His NJ enemies will become partners to start, and maybe allies in mutually beneficial situations, but competition, as they take advantage of the NY share before they get wiped out. This will all be moot. The BigM will be restored and as good as ever. The road to that is very tough.
