Instant Racing

Instant Racing, known generically as historical race wagering, is an electronic gambling system that allows players to bet on replays of horse races or dog races that have already been run. Some Instant Racing terminals resemble slot machines. Instant Racing is a product of AmTote in partnership with Oaklawn Park.

Gameplay begins when a player deposits his wager, and a race is randomly selected from a video library of over 60,000 previous races. Identifying information such as the location and date of the race, and the names of the horses and jockeys, is not shown. The player is able to view "Skill Graph" charts from the Daily Racing Form, showing information such as the jockeys' and trainers' winning percentages. Based on this handicapping information, the player picks the projected top three runners in order of finish. Most players use the "handi helper" feature, which allows the machine to automatically make the selections on the player's behalf.

Payouts are based on traditional pari-mutuel processes. The player's wager is divvied up into several "betting pools" for different winning possibilities, such as picking the winner of the race, picking the top three finishers in exact order, or any of the three selections finishing first and second. The machine then shows a video replay of all or a portion of the race. If the player achieved a particular type of "win", he receives the money from that pool, while the money in each of the other pools continues to accumulate until another bettor wins it.

Early versions of instant racing terminals closely resembled self-serve wagering terminals. Some later terminals began to mimic slot machines, with symbols on spinning reels corresponding to the results of the player's wager, and the video of the race occupying only a 2-inch square in the corner of the display.

The idea of historical race wagering was conceived by Eric Jackson, general manager of Oaklawn Park. He brought the idea to three major companies in January 1997, but found no takers. Later in the year, he met with Ted Mudge, president of AmTote, who liked the idea and asked Jackson to present it to experts at a February 1998 racing industry gathering in Maryland. The project gathered momentum from there. The Arkansas General Assembly took steps in 1999 to authorize Instant Racing by removing the requirement that simulcast races be shown live. A test deployment was launched in January 2000 at Oaklawn Park and Southland Greyhound Park, with 50 machines at each track. The machines proved popular and Jackson reported that as many as a dozen other tracks were pursuing approval to install the machines within two months of the test.

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