6 hours of living hell

Most people who have known me, have always assumed I was great at being a teller because of my family`s background in horse racing.  Truth be told, I was the first member of my family to work on the front side of a race track.  So being a good mutuel teller was something I would have to become myself, since my family knew nothing of that kind of job.

When I first started in mutuels, there was no such thing as OTB or simulcasting.  You bet on races for that track only.  Which worked out perfect for me, I could sometimes get a ride to work from my dad if i didn`t have college that day.  My first day(actually day and a half) I rode in with dad, and he told me “Dude, go talk to this guy in mutuels he will show you what it is about.  After the races are over we will go out and eat”  So off I went for my “training/watching” day.

First I would like to point out, I started during the middle of the meet, and back then that wasn`t normal.  People get hired at the beginning of the meet, makes teaching new people easier when you can train them all together.  But anyway, I went for training.  The first thing I got to do was sit in and watch one of the ladies work her window.  She ran a $50 window and also cashed IRS stuff so lucky for me she wasn`t very busy and I could watch her do things.  People who had that kind of window didn`T have near as many people trying to run each other over and call out bets over top of one another.  So I got the chance to really watch at a slower pace and pick up a few tricks.  Another note here, is that people who bet in $50 windows generally have some basic knowledge at least of how to bet, so getting used to the types of bets and where keys are was a bit easier, then someone who bets small bets and might bet on all kinds of things.

After sitting with her for about a race or 2, the guy who was designated to actually train me showed up.  He was awesome.  I think the reason I became such a good teller was mainly because of him.  The first thing he taught me was some of the lingo.  He said “Bettors have their own language.  Most of the bets have been around for centuries, so some of the terms have been around for a very long time.  To be good you have to know these terms, but also recognize what they mean, because sometimes bettors use them but don`t actually know what they mean”.  I realized that the second I had a lady say “Baseball me the 6 horse” She was using some terms she heard but had no idea baseball meant box, and you had to have at least 2 numbers for that.  What she meant to say was “across the board”.  So I got another hour or so of punching in practice bets from him.  Then I got the standard speech from almost every major event in my life “By the way, you start tomorrow!”  Most new tellers get a week or so of training I received 2 hours of it, but was probably the best 2 hours of teaching ever.

The next day I arrived at work, and boy was I relieved to find out I would be working right next to the guy who trained me.  Even luckier that he worked an IRS window so he could have a bit more chance to watch over me from time to time, if he knew I was getting a particularly difficult customer.  Which I had lots of them.  In most jobs on your first day, you don`t know what to do, but the people who are your customers do.  Like someone buying gas or a candy bar at a convenient store, they know what they want, where as betting you deal with people who don`t know what they want or the right way to say it(generally not all the time).  So it is like 2 times the amounts of chances to mess something up.

The first day of work went so slow, waves of people betting 2 dollar shows bets one at a time for 10 races.  I swore it would never end.  Each person having multiple bets for everyone in their group.  One guy gets designated to be the “go bet for us” person.  So each bet had to be on a separate ticket.  Not that I would`ve known how to put more than 1 on a ticket at that time.  Then just when you think you got a little break, the race would be over and time for pay outs.  And then the bunch of tickets they had would be flung in your window for you to cash One at a time!  It was almost enough to drive a person mad.  And on top of all that was the possibility of making a mistake and coming up short.  I was 24 dollars short my first day.  Sometimes it is easy to figure out what went wrong.  If you are short 1,5,10,20,50,100 you might have had bills stuck together, but 24 stuff just happens.

Like most places every now and then you get some idiot that will try to scam you.  People who are having a losing day and think they can get on over on you or the track.  About 7 races into my first day I had a guy come up and demand to speak to a manager saying I screwed him out of 100 dollar the day before.  My boss came to my rescue.  She looked the guy in the eyes and told him “First of all, who waits a day when someone cheats them out of $100?  Second, this kid just started working for us 4 hours ago, so there is no possible way he ripped you off yesterday.  next time don`t come up here accusing people of things, I don`t like when people try to cheat my tellers”  Listening to her talk to him like that and stand up for me, I felt so lucky.  Especially since before she got to the window I was shaking with fear thinking his lies would get me fired.  I was really glad to be on her line that day.  She always liked to give me a hard time but she wasn`t afraid to do the right thing when she needed too.

Somehow I managed to make it home that night, I was nervous and shaking and looked like a train wreck waiting to happen.  That went on for the rest of the meet.  Somehow though I stuck it out and learned the ropes.  One thing about it, ask anyone that’s really been a mututel teller.  They will tell you it is rough at first but once you get it down, it is a really fun experience.

 

 

So you want to be a Mutuel Teller

“It can`t be that hard, sit there and punch in numbers when someone comes up to bet”.  If I had a dollar for every time i heard that I would`ve been a millionaire by age 20.  The job itself looks easy on paper, but it`s a different thing when you have to actually do it.  Most people do not bet correctly.  Note, I am not blaming them or complaining, being able to figure out what a costumer wants is half of the fun.

To be a great Mutuel Teller, you have to know a lot of different things.  Things like, which race tracks you have running that night, what kind of bets each track has, and also the dollar amounts they have.  Most tracks have the same types of wagers and same minimum amount you can do, but not all.  I had many new customers come to the track and say ” I got this amount of cash, that I can spend on this race, what`s a good bet?”  A good teller will help you figure out what you want to try to also explain to you what is necessary for your bet to win.  You also have to have a sense of humor.  Any time you deal with money there is a chance you will get some pretty strange comments or questions.  One time a lady came to my window to cash in a ticket that won over $700.  Without even wasting a second she said “Where is the nearest department store I am going shopping!”  Her husband , who bet with me on a regular basis was behind her making hand signals to tell me to avoid giving her any info on places to shop.

Another thing for all of you potential tellers out there is people skills.  You will see the same people everyday of your life.  This is not like 7-11 or walmart, where you see a guy everyday and he comes in buys a pack of gum and leaves.  These people you have to deal with hundreds of times a day everyday you work.  Sure there will be some customers you just can`t stand, but for the most part the people who become your regular bettors you will enjoy.  Most of the people who bet with me on a regular basis I knew what kind of bet they were going to make before they even started, and some I even knew what numbers!

One big thing to think about before you get too excited about becoming a teller, is mistakes.  Unlike most jobs where you make a mistake, you might get yelled at, written up, and maybe punished, making a mistake as a teller sometimes costs you money.  If your drawer doesn`t have the correct amount of money in it at night you have to pay what it is short.  Without getting into details there are many ways to mess up, and I have seen people have to pay thousands of dollars.  Imagine not only not getting paid to work this week but maybe even the next year or 2.  I will be honest there is not a single person out there that works as a teller that hasn`T come up short at least once.   And it never fails, when you mess up and know you have to pay someone either your boss or a customer will come up and give you some line about “how come you aren`t smiling?”  I always got in trouble for my answer but I told them “you cough up a few hundred bucks for something and see if you are smiling”  Most times I got yelled at for saying it but my point got across and they left me alone.

This type of job is something you have to want to do.  I know I loved doing it.  Give it a try you might too.

How to Bet

This is only a guide on the correct way to say your bet.  This is the way the mutuel teller puts your bet into the machine.  By saying the bet in this order it saves time and confusion on both sides.

1. The track.

2. The race number.

3. the dollar amount.

4. The type of wager.

5. Your horse number(s).

Ex.      ABC track, race 7, $2 Exacta box, 3 & 8.

 

2 things to note,

1. Dollar amount is the amount you are betting NOT the total cost of your ticket.   The example bet costs $4.  The reason is you are buying a $2 exacta 3 8, and also a $2 exacta 8 3.  The dollar amount is $2.  If you were to say $4, your ticket would cost $8.

2. Types of wagers are win, place, show, exacta, quinnella, trifecta, superfecta, daily double, pick 3, pick 4, pick 6 etc.  Box, key, and partial wheel are NOT TYPES OF WAGERS. They are ways to describe how you are wagering.

Knowing the correct way to bet not only will help you get your ticket faster,  but it will also help you make sure you got the exact bet you wanted.  That way if there is some confusion , it can be cleared up and corrected quickly.

 

 

How the Amount You Win Is Determined.

Initially I was going to stay away from the gambling aspect of racing.  There are many blogs out there on how to gamble or picking winners, but a few of my ex-coworkers talked me into doing this for information purposes.

Let  me start off by saying ” THE TRACK DOESN`T CARE WHICH HORSE WINS!”  It gets the same amount of money whether the favorite wins or the biggest long shot on the board wins.

Let`s say you and 49 of your friends are all over at your house watching the races.  Then one person says lets bet to see who wins.  Everyone bets 2 dollars on the who they think will win.  So now we have $100 total in the betting pool.  You need a 3rd party that’s neutral to hold the cash and figure out who gets paid,  so you get someone who isn`t involved in the bet to hold the cash and divide up the winnings.  That person (Aka the track) says “Since I am doing all the work I will take $10 out as a fee”.  Now we have $90 left in the pool.  This is the maximum amount available to pay to the winners.  So now that the betting is all done, the race happens and it is time to pay out to the winners.  If 1 person wins they get the entire $90, if 2 people win $45, 9 people win $10.  The pool (the $90) is split equally among all those who won. I make it a point to emphasize the word split , because many times I hear “I would`ve liked to have that.  I could use the $ __ that  it paid”.  Then I have to explain to people “If you would have had a winning ticket also, it would not have paid the same amount.  There would have been 1 more ticket with the winning numbers, so it would have been split up differently and all the people involved would have received less winnings”.

Another thing to point out is I get a lot of complaints about “O the track cheated and wanted that horse to win so it wouldn`t have to pay out as much.”  The track doesn`t care who wins.  It receives its fee or cut, no matter who wins. How much is actually taken out of the pool is a bit more complicated than I am making it for this.  The track gets a different percentage of the pool for different types of bets.  Win, place and show bets do not have the same amount taken out as the exotic wagers do.

Let It Ride

As someone who has grown up around horses and horse racing, I love horse movies.  Some movies seem like they are made specifically for you.  Let It Ride was one of them.  I have worked as a Mutuel Teller for more than a decade, and also went to the track from the movie a lot as a kid.  Nothing makes me laugh like this movie, but I do realize some of it is just flat-out impossible.  For example The main character walking all over the back side, or going or time to go to a bar that isn`t located on the track premises, talk to people, bet and then go watch the race.  Your average races race about 25 minutes apart, sometimes longer sometimes shorter depending on a number of things.    Makes me wish they had more of these type of humorous horse racing movies!