Kentucky boom expected to continue after legalizing historic horse racing table games
by Bob Duff
Historic horse racing (HHR), also referred to as instant horse racing, has proven to be a multi-billion-dollar boon for the industry in Kentucky. And horse racing folks certainly aren’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Building on the success of historical horse racing machines, the Bluegrass State has expanded its HHR empire. The state is now offering table game versions of the popular historic horse racing machines, which, in simple terms, are slot machines offering the chance to wager on horse races from past years.
The Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation (KHRGC) approved the use of historical horse racing technology for electronic table games in late November. Even though these games resemble roulette, blackjack, and craps, in the eyes of state gaming officials, they are officially recognized as a form of pari-mutuel wagering. That’s vital, because pari-mutuel wagering is legal in Kentucky. Electronic casino games are not. No traditional casinos are operating in Kentucky, a state in which casino gambling remains illegal.
With historic horse racing games, players are wagering against each other, and all funds bet on the HHR games are pooled. They are not betting against the house.
Seeing the amount of funds that HHR machines are contributing to the state’s purse structure for live horse racing, horsepeople in the state fully support adding newer upgrades to this form of virtual racing. In 2023 alone, $963 million in revenue was generated in Kentucky through historical horse racing machines. These machines were legalized in the state in 2020.
“I’d just like to say I agree with it,” trainer and KHRGC board member Dale Romans told Spectrum News 1. “We’re doing very well in Kentucky, and we can’t be complacent.
“We have to keep getting better, and I think this makes us more competitive with the three major [Kentucky] racetracks on the Indiana border that are competing with [Indiana] casinos.
“This is going to make us more competitive.”
There was only one dissenting vote during the ballot to legalize the HHR table games.
“I really believe these machines allow Kentucky to remain competitive with the competition from adjoining states,” KHGRC director Bill Landes said.
Operators of prominent Kentucky racetracks such as Churchill Downs have also thrown their support behind the expansion of HHR into electronic table games.
The first approved version of a historic horse racing table game looks very similar to roulette. It’s anticipated that gaming technology developers will be increasing their focus on developing a variety of
HHR-themed versions of table games now that the use of these games in Kentucky has been granted approval.
“KHRGC staff anticipates future requests will have other types of theme game terminals,” said Travers Manley, the senior vice president of gaming for KHRGC.
Games with craps and blackjack themes are expected to be developed in the near future.
HOW HISTORIC HORSE RACING GAMES WORK
Although they look very much like slot machines, historical horse racing machines don’t operate anything at all like a casino slot machine. When you play a slot machine, all outcomes are determined through the use of random number generators.
With historical horse racing machines, the outcome is determined by the real result of an actual race from the past.
Historical horse racing machines are programmed with up to as many as 60,000 previously-run horse races dating all the way back into the 1990s. All of the historical data from each of these many races is
randomized and anonymized. Game developers have found that racing from the early 1990s is proving to be the most popular, since racing fields were much more heavily populated with horses in those days, creating better overall odds for the races.
When you approach an HHR machine and prepare to place a wager on a race, you’ll be presented with the form charts and past performances for every horse entered in the race. You’ll also be given access to the percentages for the jockeys/drivers and trainers.
What you won’t get is the name of any of the participants or the site of the race. All aspects that might help you in identifying the past race on which you’ll be wagering are cloaked in secrecy. Once you’ve placed your bet on the particular race, all of that data is then unveiled for the bettor.
Wagering on a race being contested on a historical horse racing machine operates in the same manner as if you were betting on an actual live race about to take place on a track. All the money is wagered into a pari-mutuel pool, and the odds will be determined by the wagers bet into that pool. You can make all of the same bets as you would on a real race – win, place, show, across the board, exacta, and trifecta.
HHR machines pay out 91 per cent of all money wagered. That’s a lower return to player (RTP) than you’d get from slot machines, which generally offer RTPs in the 94-96 per cent range. There’s a good reason for the lower payout rate, though.
A portion of that 9 per cent takeout ends up being invested in the state’s horse racing industry. Contributions also go to breeding, sires stake programs, and purses.
