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My experience with recreation.gov reservations has been as soon as registration is available for the coming season people will reserve every weekend speculatively and just eat the reservation or cancellation cost if they decide not to go. It really sucks as you have to basically play the game yourself even if you are opposed to it.

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Yeah, the article is objecting to a fee for applying for the lotteries, but without them there would be so many speculative entries in the system that things wouldn't work.

I'd prefer a system in which you get a certain number of tokens that you can use to bid on various things. Speculative entries would lower your chances of actually getting what you want and thus be discouraged.

The article isn't against the lottery fee. It's against BAH making more money on the lottery fee than the park ends up making from the people who win the lottery.

Given the high number of applicants vs successes that's basically to be expected. The problem is BAH making the money instead of the park service.

Yes, this is what is happening. I drive through campground and talk to the hosts and they say that they frequently have empty spots because people just did not cancel.

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