This year marks the 40th straight Kalgoorlie-Boulder Race Round bookmaker Ernie McCreed will attend.
He was once one of dozens to assemble under the cavernous tin shed, which doubled as the Goldfield's famous bookie ring, calling out odds as they hustled for business.
But now the odds are turning against him.
"Oh, it's changed considerably," Mr McCreed said.
"Considering [that] when I first started in Kalgoorlie there was up to 16, 18 bookmakers and some meetings here we're down to two.
"Just recently we haven't had any here in Kalgoorlie."
Online gambling keeps punters away
Bookmakers say the explosion of online gambling has kept punters away from the track, with those taking bets the first casualties.
"Punters find it so easy on their phone," Kalgoorlie Boulder Race Club President Mark Brennan said.
"A lot of people are sitting at home in their lounge rooms on their phones, watching telly instead of coming to the track and that's affecting race clubs all over the state.
"Sadly, I would say the future for on-course bookmakers in Western Australia is very limited; we've seen bookies disappear from many dominions throughout the world."
Mr McCreed fears the emergence of online betting may relegate race track bookies to a bygone era.
"It's getting tougher and tougher for the bookmakers, we're getting older and older," he said.
"There's not too many young ones around and yeah, the corporates are knocking us around."
On-track bet decline a symptom of struggle
Mr Brennan said the bookies were just one symptom of a struggling local racing industry, which was haemorrhaging revenue due to online gambling.
"That's had a big hit on on-course turnover through our totes and our bookmakers and our tote turnover is historically where we've got our money," he said.
Mr Brennan said the lack of race track cash flow rippled right through the industry.
"Foal crops are down, there's less horses being bred [and] therefore, there's less horses being bought, trained, so it makes it hard," he said.
"The smaller the size of the field, the less turnover and the less money for our race clubs."
Clubs say new tax could save industry
Industry leaders say governments are trying to play catch up after the explosion of online gambling and recent measures are seeing dollars trickle back into grass roots turf clubs.
The Western Australian State Government recently announced a "point of consumption" of 15 per cent on all bets placed in the state.
"This reform will benefit the local racing industry by levelling the tax playing field for the WATAB relative to the online corporate bookmakers," Racing and Gaming Minister Paul Papalia said.
However, the tax will not come into effect until 2019.
"Changes need to happen soon," Mr Brennan said.
"There's been a lot of nervous tracks that have one or two meetings a year, which play a really vital part in the social fabric of those towns, but on an economic basis, are probably not a viable model."
