He’s Gaughan and done it again
Where others in Las Vegas hold back, Michael Gaughan plunges boldly forward. Using its iView platform, Bally Technologies has been holding virtual horse races, streamed across the slot floors of various tribal casinos. Pechanga Resort & Casino in California and Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino have been quick out of the chute, as has mammoth Mohegan Sun Casino. (As usual, tribal casinos continue to outpace industrial ones in their deployment of new technology.) So far the only private-sector adoptee has been little Valley Forge Casino Resort, the baby of the Pennsylvania market. The only one until now, that is. On Thursday, South Point Hotel Casino & Spa inaugurates virtual racing with its first-ever “South Point Stakes.” In best Barona tradition, there will be a trumpeter to play pre-race fanfares and track announcer Frank Miramahdi will call the digitized action. (I’d show up for the action and especially the mystery Grey Goose cocktail but I have “parenting” duties that night.) Gaughan is one of the few real mavericks in Vegas, so you can be darn sure the rest of the industry is watching how virtual racing plays at South Point before gingerly taking it up themselves.
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July 24th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Baron Casino?
Barona, and they’re in Lakeside, near SD.
Pechanga is in Temecula, about halfway between SD and Riverside.
July 24th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
A typo born of haste, Seventy. I’d been writing about these virtual races for Casino Life magazine (based in the U.K.) but damned if Barona, Pechanga or Valley Forge would cooperate.
July 25th, 2012 at 6:57 am
Hang on a second here… People want to gamble on a pre-determined “digital” horse race??? Yes, I will throw a few quarters at the Sigma Derby, out of nostalgia and to kill a few minutes. But real horse players read The Daily Racing Form and actually handicap the races. Maybe this is the future, inbreeding and declining attendance has destroyed the industry, but I would not expect avid horse players to accept this. It’s kind of an insult to someone who studies every possible factor and angle.
July 25th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Mike, I agree. It’s a travesty. But case studies by BYI show that it’s doing well in Indian Country, where casinos like Mohegan Sun are committing thousands of machines to “running” these events, and now the private sector is getting into it. Since people now go to the track to play slots, I guess it only makes sense that they’d go to a casino to play the [CGI] ponies.
July 31st, 2012 at 10:15 am
David – the Virtual Races are not a wager-required bet on “pre-determined digital horse races”. It is purely a Slot Marketing promotion designed to incent additional Coin In and visitation. It is a new and exciting way to reinvest in players “at the point of play” rather than in the mailbox.
July 31st, 2012 at 6:10 pm
At the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek, FL, if you pick the winner of the race, they give you 5,000 slot points. Second is worth 2,500 points, and third gets you 1,000 points.