While the Kentucky Derby this week will get lots of bets, it’s horse races from the past that make the most money from gamblers on Saturday.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Kentucky Derby will be run for the 152nd time at Churchill Downs this weekend. Once more, BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music, is not entered. And the prize money for horse owners during this week’s biggest races is a record $19.1 million. Justin Hicks with Louisville Public Media reports a good chunk of that prize money comes from gambling that happens far away from the track.
JUSTIN HICKS, BYLINE: About five miles from Churchill Downs in downtown Louisville is Derby City Gaming. It’s a big hall owned by the racetrack with nearly 500 brightly flashing machines. And they have themes like pandas and eagles on them, but not a single horse in sight. And to most people, they look like slots.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLOT MACHINE BLEEPING)
HICKS: Now, I’ve got $40 just burning a hole in my pocket, so I settle in on an electronic roulette machine with a real ball and wheel and bet $3 on even.
Come on. Even number, even number, even number, even number. Thirty-five. Great.
Travers Manley is with the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation, which regulates places like these. He says I shouldn’t be fooled by the big red neon sign above my head that says roulette.
TRAVERS MANLEY: This is not a ball spinning on the roulette wheel. This is just another entertaining representation of a historical horse race.
HICKS: What he means is that somewhere deep inside the guts of this game, a horse race from the past is playing out and then gets translated into the results of this not-roulette roulette wheel. In Kentucky, only horse tracks like Churchill Downs can own games like these, and they have to be based on racing. Travers says just last year, people wagered more than $11 billion on these machines.
MANLEY: The increase in the amount of money coming from the historical horse racing and the purses going up – that has had a major impact.
HICKS: An impact on the quality of horses at Kentucky tracks. Experts say that’s because these historic horse race machines are a subsidy of sorts for the racing industry. And because of them, Kentucky is now able to offer more prize money to horse owners than any other state.
For NPR News, I’m Justin Hicks in Louisville.
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