An increasing number of areas are seeing alternatives to traditional slot machines becoming available. Here’s an example:
Can you talk about slots that are tied to horse races (as in KY). Are they worth playing?
Chris S.
For those who aren’t aware, there are a lot of places in the United States that don’t allow slot machines. But other forms of gaming have become available that skirt the need to get approved for slot machines.
The most common of these are bingo machines, otherwise known as Class II machines, which tribal gaming facilities often offer either in tandem with traditional slot machines, or in places where regular slots aren’t approved, in lieu of them.
Historical Horse Racing machines are another way to work around the lack of approval for slots. They tend to pop up in places where horse racing is legalized, and work around the issue of slot approval by having players instead place wagers on previously run horse races, under the same parimutuel prize structure that horse races follow, meaning a percentage of the prize pool is paid back to players, and a small percentage is kept by the house.
The machines you’ll see on the casino floor will look like any other slot machine, but the outcome is instead determined outside the machine, on that horse race. Some machines will show a short video of the race’s conclusion to indicate the final outcome coming from that perspective.
They’re going to be as worth playing the same as any other type of game you can find. Historical Horse Racing machines will often have a smaller house percentage than lower denomination slots, so in the long run they may even do a bit better than your 1 cent denomination slots.
The companies that make games for Historical Horse Racing casinos are increasingly bringing their top brands to the markets, which is a sign they’ve figured out how to make the games work roughly the same – they would not dilute their brands if they didn’t have that worked out. So if you see a game with a brand like Quick hit, it should play similarly to the ones in Vegas casinos, even though how it works under the hood differs.
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