Lower Base Wager = High Handle

In today’s Daily Racing Form, Steve Anderson brings to light that the .50 cent Pick 5 wager has supplanted the Pick 6 as the wager of choice at Hollywood Park – at least when patrons are chasing the carryover.  Aside from the goofy ‘single winner’ requirement of the Rainbow Six at Gulfstream Park this winter, that bet, with a .10 minimum was also very popular with bettors.
While this may be a surprise to some, I think to folks that have been involved in the gaming business over the last ten years, this is no surprise at all.  In my thirteen plus years on the supplier side of the casino industry I’ve seen this trend developing over time.

Twenty years ago the undisputed king of the slot machines was the quarter slot machine.  You could bet up to five coins, but usually two or three, spin the reels and test your luck.  In the 1990’s the multi-line nickel machines started to become more popular.  You were able to play nickels before, but usually it was just the same quarter machine “denomed down” to a nickel.  Casinos provided some of these games as a courtesy to their players, but at .25 a spin, there was not a lot of profit in them, but you needed to have something for the wives of the high rolling craps players to play (that was the theory anyway).
Aristocrat Technologies, an Australia based slot machine manufacturer, is generally credited with being the first company to take advantage of new electronics technology and started launching the higher line count nickel games using video reels instead of the traditional mechanical reels.  Now there were nickel games that had nine lines and you could bet up to 10 coins per line.  The maximum wager on a nickel game went from .25 to $4.50 and the average wager started moving north of the .50 and .75 maximum wager allowed by the classic .25 slot machine.

As time moved forward, other manufacturers followed this trend and over the past 5 – 8 years, the emergence of penny slot machines coincided with the advent of ticket-in, ticket-out technology to enable players to cash out thousands of coins worth of winnings onto a single ticket and move to another machine.  This made penny games more playable and more profitable for the players and casinos, respectively.  These penny games now have up to 100 lines and the ability to wager as many as 10 credits per line.  Your “penny” game became a $10 game when played at maximum credits.  Where these penny games, when first introduced, were only a small percentage of a casino floor, they now command over 50% of the floor space in most properties with some as many as 60%.  And the average wager of these slot players, once at approximately .37 cents twenty five years ago, now hovers at closer to .78 cents.  Lower base wager amount = higher handle.

Oh, and their takeout only averages about 9% - maybe that lesson is the next one that racing will learn…eventually.

Belmont Pick 6 Wrap Up

Here is a brief recap of my day chasing the Pick 6 at Belmont yesterday. I found myself a cozy spot on the side of the road with some solid cell coverage and put the iPhone to use last night. I knew when I saw the first race result I was out. I also knew that it may be a painful day because what I feared could happen in the 1st, did happen and I that set the tone for the afternoon.

Race 4: I wrote yesterday that I feared St. Midas and my fears were well founded. He got a half a length in front of the first timer, Scholarly Pursuit, and that was all she wrote. Esquivilence finished up third.

Race 5: I admittedly overlook Quonata – the string chalk – and was burned by it. My choice, Donna’s Sandee finished a game second.

Race 6: I thought the 1, WC Jones, was the stronger of the Clemente entry on the grass and with him scratched I moved over to Storm Hope who finished “with good courage” after encountering traffic problems for 2nd and Mind Boggling who I think is still running. The winner? The “other Clemente horse”, Quiet On The Tee.

Race 7: Finally got a winner. I went three deep in this one and finished 1,3 & 4 with the winner being Crazy Thing.

Race 8: The big priced (13-1) Crazy Catlady (no doubt named for Brooklyn Backstretch) upended my two choices Speed Dating and Nedjima who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Race 9: Another winner. Carmen’s Kiss easily handled my other choice Sarah’s Sally with my third in this race, Crafty Gem finished 5th.

So to tie a bow on it, I finished with 2 wins, 3 seconds and a third. Out of my 12 horses in the P6, 8 actually hit the board. Not bad, but not $200,000 or as it turns out, several winners at $33,000.

Belmont Pick 6

The carryover ($150,000+) was too big to ignore so I'm taking a stab at the Pick 6 at Belmont today. The last time I gave this a shot I was 4 of 6 and my misses were right out of the gate and halfway through knocking me out right out of the gate (well, actually at the wire) and decimating any P3 tickets along the way. I Blogged live throughout that day, which was a lot of fun. Today is a bit of a different animal. I'm traveling through Northern Minnesota with very little cell coverage so I will have no idea how I did until I get closer to the Twin Cities later on tonight.

Here is my limited budget stab at riches and fame:

Race 4: A maiden claiming event on the dirt, I singled the 7, Esquivalience but fear the 3-year old St. Midas.

Race 5: Off the turf, this $25,000 CL nw2 event was plagued by scratches. I wasn't going for a single in this race, but ended up with one by default. The pick is the 10, Donna's Sandee.

Race 6: State Bred Maidens going a mile and an eight over a yielding turf course. I went two deep in this race taking 2, Storm Hope and 6, Mind Boggling.

Race 7: A filly and mare sprint, $10,000 Claiming. I reached three deep in this one and took 4, Smokin Sarah, 5, Crazy Thing and 7, Stephen's Rhythm's.

Race 8: State Bred Optional $50,000 Claimers over the turf. I went two deep here, but was very tempted to go three. My choices are 3, Nedjma (on the class edge over these) and 8, Speed Dating (who I think will benefit more from the second back angle and jockey change than Off Hand Remark). I vacillated back and forth on the 4, Princess Maura, but left her out as there will be a lot of pace in this race today and as a lightly raced 3, she may fold against her older competitors. I would not be surprised if she gets it, though.

Race 9: For the finale, another Maiden Claimer, I went three deep. The 1, Sarah's Sally, the 3, Carmen's Kiss (I came really close to not taking her - she was a last minute add) and the 10, Crafty Gem.

So to recap: 7/10/2,6/4,5,7/3,8/1,3,10

Best of luck to everyone giving this one a shot today. It'll be fun tonight to see the results when I finally get in cell coverage and am able to pull over and check it out!

Meadowlands Pick 6 - Redux

Here we go again. Some estimates are that tonight's Pick 6 at the Big M could go over $1 million tonight, but the official carryover is a little over $429,000. Once again we are ganging up on a Pick 6 ticket and trying to score. I limited myself to 2 choices per race to throw into the pool. Here are my choices by race:

Race 4 - 2, 7
Race 5 - 4, 6
Race 6 - 1, 9
Race 7 - 1, 4
Race 8 - 4, 5
Race 9 - 2, 4

The group ticketis at the bottom 0f this post. Once again I'll be Tweeting race by race and hopefully bring you all the joys of hitting a million dollar pick 6! In any event, hopefully we'll be alive longer than 1 race tonight!!

Good luck to all of you that will be trying to nail this one tonight!

GROUP PICK SIX PLAY

Race 4 - 2, 7, 8
Race 5 - 1, 4, 6
Race 6 - 1, 4, 5, 6, 9
Race 7 - 1, 2, 4, 5, 9
Race 8 - 1, 4, 5, 9
Race 9 - 2, 7

RESULTS

Well there were winning rickets and they paid over $100,000 each. The downside, they weren't ours. We were knocked out in just the second leg where we have 3/5th of the field covered and stilll missed. Any possible consolation ticket went out the window with a victory by the 8 in the 5th leg. A carryover was still live heading into the final race with two horses possible to keep the record carryover going. That didn't happen and it was exciting while it lasted. For the record, the group ticket went 3 for 6 while my choices went 4 for 6. Not bad showings, but not enough for the dough.

Meadowlands Pick 6

I'm part of a group tonight trying to nail the over $200,000 (expected) pick 6. I'm going to post the results later on, but will Tweet during the evening. We're 2 minutes to post and here is the entire ticket:

Race 4 - 1,2,3,5,8,9,10
Race 5 - 1,2,6,7
Race 6 - 2,6,7
Race 7 - 1,4,7
Race 8 - 2,6,8
Race 9 - 2,3

Pretty deep in the wide open first. My picks separately were:

Race 4 - 2,3
Race 5 - 1,6,7
Race 6 - 1,2,7
Race 7 - 9
Race 8 - 2,6
Race 9 - 3,7,8

Some of my choices made it to the main ticket, others didn't. We'll see how it goes!

UPDATED w/ RESULTS

Not more than 2 minutes after this was posted the 6 horse wins the first and places out clear of the picture for the Pick 6. We bounced back with chalky wins in the second and third legs but was bounced out for good after the 9 horse wins the fourth leg. Ironically he was my single in that race (see 7th race above) but he wasn't used in the big ticket. That said, you can't use everyone's pick and she had early speed and the way outside post so at 3-1 he was a lower odds horse that seemed to warrant dismissal. Apparently not. We completely whiffed the 8th race so any consolation was out the window even though the winner was only 5/2 we still missed her and we were out of anything. In the finale, longshot filly Showmeyourmuscles upsets the field and will create a carryover of over $400,000 tomorrow and total prize of probably half a million dollars. You can bet we'll be back at it tomorrow!