ARCADIA, Calif. – On Thursday, Santa Anita unveiled a slot machine-style parimutuel game based on previously run races, a venture track officials hope will lead to an ancillary form of revenue to support California racing. The track installed 26 machines in a small grandstand pavilion. The machines, which were available for public use for the first time on Thursday, will be active on live racing days. Known as Racing on Demand, the machines offer $1 bets only and require bettors to select the first three finishers of three random six-horse races. An automated quick-pick option is available to bettors. Bettors receive payoffs for correctly naming a minimum of three of the nine finishing positions. For example, a bettor would receive a minimum payoff for naming the winner of the first race, the second-place finisher of the second race, and the third-place finisher of the third race – or for correctly naming a trifecta. Because the machines have a parimutuel format, payoffs vary depending on the number of bettors involved at a given time and the number of correct selections, officials said. :: Santa Anita Classic Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, Clocker Reports, and more. With only one machine operating late Thursday morning, payoffs ranged from $2.98 for correctly naming three or four of the nine finishers to $75.98 for naming six, $1,500.28 for naming eight, and a sweep of a progressive jackpot of $10,002.58 for naming all nine. In a five-minute period on Thursday morning, the results of several games showed past races from Gulfstream Park, Hawthorne, Laurel, Lone Star, Pimlico, Portland Meadows, and Turf Paradise. No California races will be part of the game, officials said. The finishes of the three races involved in each game appear in a small window on the top of the gaming machines for approximately two seconds. The machines can also be adjusted to show the entirety of the races involved. The machines have a provision for rudimentary handicapping, showing bar graphs that display form, pedigree, pace, earnings, trainer-jockey combinations, class, and speed categories. The information is of minimal use, however, without knowledge of the races involved. The machines are a variation of the historical horse racing machines that have been wildly successful at other venues across the nation, greatly enhancing purses at some tracks. California tracks have long sought a secondary source of revenue to enhance purses and compete with tracks in other states, notably Arkansas and Kentucky, that have considerably higher purse structures. The format of the Racing on Demand machines is based on a $1 3x3 wager introduced at Del Mar in August 2024 and approved by the California Horse Racing Board earlier that year. The bet, conducted on the final three races each day, requires bettors to name the first three finishers before the start of the third-to-last race. The 3x3 bet, which has a carryover if there are no tickets that sweep all three trifectas, has not been successful. On Sunday, the most recent day of racing, tickets with three or four named horses had a payoff of $1.05 from a $64 pool. The pool was $78 last Saturday. Thursday’s program had a carryover of $609 in the 3x3 wager. Scott Daruty, the senior vice-president of 1/ST Racing, Santa Anita’s parent company, said on Thursday morning that the parimutuel format of the Racing On Demand machines comply with legal and regulatory requirements. “We’re confident it’s legal,” he said. “In the last 18 months, the bet has been in place in California.” The racing board has been notified by Santa Anita of the launch of the Racing on Demand machines. Track officials declined to offer revenue projections for Racing on Demand machines and declined to state whether the number of machines will be expanded. Santa Anita did not extensively promote the launch of the Racing On Demand machines, sending out information to the press only in the hour before the games were introduced. The plan was first reported by Paulick Report earlier on Thursday. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.