Instant Racing for Racetracks?

There is a new idea on the table as legislators look for ways of making the race tracks more financially viable – Instant Racing. State Senator Damon Thayer thinks that it might be the way to bring fans back to Turfway Park in Florence, as they have been having a lot of problems bringing fans to live racing.

Thayer has a background in horse racing, as he has seen both the marketing and public relations side in the industry. He believes that if they are able to bring Instant Racing, not just to Turfway Park but to Kentucky race tracks in general that they might be able to save the tracks and bring in more revenue.

He would like to see the machines come to the tracks to give visitors a chance to see if they like it or not. However, there has been a lot of opposition to the games as many people see them as slot machines. They say that they have not approved slot machines at racetracks in Kentucky and for Thayer to be pushing for it is going against the wishes of the people.

But Thayer argues that they are not playing a slot machine; that they are simply betting on archived races – which is very different from the picture that the anti slot machine groups are painting. He says that players are given information regarding odds and performances of the horses in the race, even if they are not given the name of the horses, jockeys or trainers or the date of the race when it was originally run.

Experts say that to compare these racing machines to slot machines is like comparing apples to oranges. There is nothing about them that is the same except for maybe the video screen, but then you could compare them to video games just as well as slot machines.

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