Homemade Parimutuel Game

[keithw84]

Wanted to share a story about something fun I did when hosting a Derby party yesterday.

Most of my friends came because they wanted to dress up, drink mint juleps, and play lawn games, but I wanted to get people into the race... I sold tickets for $1 each, people wrote their name on the ticket, and dropped it into a cup for the corresponding horse. I had a DRF, a few single sheets from the local track, and a list of all the horses/owners/trainers/silks to help people decide.

After the race, I took all the tickets from the #5 cup and divided the pot proportionately among those tickets. Interestingly, Always Dreaming took 23 our of 204 tickets, and a $1 ticket returned $8.86 - so longer odds than the Derby. I didn't calculate what any other horse would've returned because of time and because my friend's two year old started picking the tickets out of the other cups.

Certainly I could make this more high-tech in the future - maybe put an excel spreadsheet on my 2nd TV and set up formulas so people could track live odds.

Also, I didn't take 18% so I'm more generous than the track, haha!

[VigorsTheGrey]

I''m sure something like that is also illegal...that is, for people who still worship at the altars of the State AND who still believe in things like, the Law...

[keithw84]

Oh yes, I'm certain it's illegal. If I had a 21st cup that said "Drop your ticket if you think you have a problem," do you think they'd let me off easier?

[KyRacer]

Here's something that might interest you for your next party. It's a Derby party bookie program. Don't think the demo works but there are some links to screen shots at the bottom of the page. I haven't tried it and not the owner but it might be fun. A little costly at $56. Link below.

I'm not sure it's illegal as long as you don't take a percentage out for the house. Kind of like your home poker games. But I'm not a lawyer.

Nags Head Software (http://www.nagsheadsoft.com/nhsweb01.htm)

[depalma113]

About as illegal as an NCAA Tournament pool. Don't see the cops cracking down on those anywhere.

[Parson]

we do something similar at our party and we do it on all the races since you can generally watch them on nbc sports until the national takes over. We do cold trifectas and assign 1 pt for if you pick the show horse, 3 pts if you pick the place horse, and 5 points if you pick the winner. Who ever has the most points takes down the pot. If there is a tie, you split the pot evenly. We had several that were over a 100.00 in each pot and we charged 3 bucks for the tickets. And we too did not worry about a take out or breakage.:)

[depalma113]

I just buy $5 win tickets on every horse and put them in a hat.

Everyone gets a rooting interest and someone makes some money.