A crazy idea to get slot players
 

How's this for a promotion and bringing slot players over to betting Harness.

For tracks with Casino/Live Racing, install a bank of video slots with the base theme of horse racing with lots of bells and whistles and maybe even some player interaction like choosing best times or hot driver etc and let the game play out like most mindless coin droppers, occasionally churning some reward back.

But here's the kicker, if the player is lucky, the game pops up with a BONUS ROUND which gives him a "FREE" Win/Exacta/Trifecta/Super ticket on the next live race. He picks 4 numbers and all wagers are automatically entered, and he gets to watch the race on the video machine and it collects any payoffs. He never has to leave his seat. Eventually some of these players, the ticket winners, will gravitate to the less boring parimutuel game.

OK, Somebody out there get the patent, I'll program the game and we'll all get rich.... :D



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Ray, fascinating idea....

Perhaps you have too much time on your hands lately, tho ?....

I mean one stingy little pick for today....

Are you on a summer schedule or something.?...

best,

Pretty good idea if the goal is to get people from the slots to the track. The problem is that the track's goal is the opposite.

I think people here in Cincy have been losing their azzes at the Indiana slots because the track has been packed a lot lately.

I don't like slots myself, but I have friends who are slot players. They have entirely different mind set. I have talk to them about it a few times. They are pure gamblers. They are kind of people who if they were betting the ponies, they would be betting their house numbers. I don't think you can get very many of them to switch. Horse racing is too slow. Even with simulcasting, it is too slow. How many times can they pull the lever while one race is being run? Poker players and Blackjack players, maybe, but not slot players.
Of course you are right, no Racino will have any interest in converting other types of gamblers into horse players. They live for the day when they can close down the track and keep open the casino. I would too if I were them. I don't understand why anybody would think differently. There is a reason no racinos have lowered the takeouts on the most popular bets. They are trying to drive the horseplayers to lower takeout games. When all is said and done the race track will make money from a blackjack play betting same amounts per hour as horse player. The cost of providing the blackjack game is next to nothing. The cost of running the race eats up all of the takeout money. The way it is set up now, I am sure if handles doubled that the costs would almost double. If handle on the blackjack doubles, the profits sky rockets because the costs are fixed. For racinos to get interested in increasing the handle on horseracing, they would have to find a way to keep their costs nearly fixed.

Love the idea but it won't fly in Pa...seems they have different regulatory commissions overseeing the action...Pa Gaming versus PA Harness Racing Commission or the Thoroughbred Commission would be stepping on too many toes.

When Wheeling first brought in the slots machines, they actually thought that the slot players and greyhound players were one in the same. Their video slot machines had the ability to put a picture in a picture which would display Wheeling Racing or a simulcast track of your choice,,,I could make wagers on the machine, simulcasting or the live racing product.

What Wheeling management found that the extra 30 percent cost for the slot machines did not generate enough wagering on the horse and greyhounds....so they found out the hard way that on average the slot player and the horse players tend to be mutually exclusive.

AS they brought in more newer games and machines, they retired the old ones which permitted me access to bet the races while sitting next to my date who is playing the slots....oh well,,,,guess I have to go out and find a girl that liked horses and hated the slots as much as me..lol

I'd play it. There is a horse racing theme multiplayer slot machine running around Minnesota. Essentially like normal slots but you win tickets for the next video race. Pending on the horse who wins, you win X times your bet.

I'll be damned, somebody beat me to it :lol:



I had little to do yesterday and was watching Destination America channel on Dish TV, a program on Why America Gambles, and heard the comment that casinos have to keep the machines Fresh with new ideas or worry about their slots market tapering off. One video machine gave a BONUS round of playing "Battleship" to keep the interest up. Likewise, Poker sites have had their share of scandals which is another demographic of gamblers looking elsewhere to plop their $$ down.

But as Cincy, SimpleSyrup, Bobby Z and Goren have pointed out, Casinos would rather the horse racing part of their business would just go away....

I agree... It is as if we are all staying at a hospice, waiting for our old friend to finally pass on, succumbing to it's own faults at last....

That is why I am supporting Jeff Gural at M1...At least this guy is trying to recapture some of the glory that is and was, the Meadowlands....And, without the aid of the, could care less, casinos....Well, one can only hope that our game continues on for a good while....Me personally, I don't have too high a hope for that tho....

best,

For those who are thinking of investing their money in slots please see this video. You can thank me later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v8USoRVbqo

Problem Is
 

Ray, the problem is it goes against the machine maker's interest to have a game that promotes horse racing. They won't do it.

I know deep down you and the others are right, ...it's the bottom line of the casino and equipment manufacturers that control this.

In fact, I have a vague recollection of some early Racinos putting in video race machines that used old race replays as the determining Win/Lose outcome for the player. It was a total flop,... even if only showing the Stretch runs to speed up the play.

Oh well, Back to the drawing board.... :)


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It's not a bad idea, but, the initial lack of integration between slots and harness pretty much sealed the fate of the latter.

When the renovations were being made, the casinos could've opened up the area between the track and the slots with, say plexiglass, but, instead they chose to create a Berlin Wall between the two. So, the slots players don't even know the track exists.

Oh, they know it exists. They just don't want anything to do with it as long they can play the slots.