http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9316792?nclick_check=1A local thoroughbred owner who went to Bay Meadows Race Track to place 1,300 single-dollar bets on the Kentucky Derby knew winning was a long shot.
After all, he was going for the "superfecta," a notoriously difficult bet that requires picking the top four finishers in order. Rather than filling out each ticket by hand, he used a "Quick-Pick" feature to spit out random combinations of the 20 horses in the race in hopes that one would prove lucky.
What he didn't expect, however, was that
not a single one of his 1,300 tickets would include the number 20 horse - the favorite and eventual winner, Big Brown.
That statistical anomaly has sparked an investigation that reaches far beyond Bay Meadows. It centers on a major producer of betting machines, which appears to have known about a system-wide malfunction that was robbing its customers but didn't immediately publicize it.
And it has invited scrutiny of the security and openness of the nation's multi-billion-dollar automated horse wagering industry.
... It appeared the Quick-Pick was automatically excluding the last horse in each race from its selections. The problem wasn't limited to Bay Meadows it appeared to be happening on all of Scientific Games' BetJet-model terminals.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
