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I’ve seen a new horse racing game outside the sports book at the Flamingo and at Harrah’s Las Vegas. What is it and how much is it like Sigma Derby?
What you’ve seen is Fortune Cup, made by Konami.
“The excitement is the same [as Sigma Derby], but the Konami brings the game up to modern standards,” writes Wizard of Odds Mike Shackleford.
Eight horses canter around a green oval, but unlike Sigma Derby, which offered quinella-only betting, in Fortune Cup you can wager on one horse to win or place, whereby you can finish second and still win. Fortune Cup also offers quinella betting, from which you can make a staggering number (28) of wagers. There's even a progressive-jackpot feature, for which the eligible horse is chosen by the machine after the race begins. The game has 10 betting stations, card readers for your players club card, and USB charging stations.
Shackleford, who also found Fortune Cup at the Hard Rock (soon to be Virgin) and Venetian, estimates the hold at between 82% and 84%, so Sigma Derby’s hefty house edge lives on. For those seeking time on device, Fortune Cup offers a good temporal return, with one race every 80 seconds. Each derby is accompanied by a multi-angle video display and prerecorded play-by-play.
PlayNevada.com lamented, “The vintage Sigma Derby horse racing game is fun in part because of its age. It’s not possible to recreate the novelty of playing a casino game for a physical quarter. The bouncing horse movements can’t be recreated either. However,” it added, “Fortune Cup offers more of everything that horse racing fans should enjoy in a casino game.”
The greater smoothness of Fortune Cup is due to Konami’s powering of the horses through magnets, compared to the tracks in which Sigma Derby ponies ran. The liberation of horse from track also enables races to be run in a figure-eight pattern, although we don’t know how often that’s done. Ditto the progressive jackpot, which Konami has done a poor job of explaining, even mystifying Shackleford — no mean feat.
The game debuted at the 2016 Global Gaming Expo (G2E). Casinos that have adopted Fortune Cup in the Vegas area include Red Rock Resort, the D (backstopping its Sigma Derby machine, the last in Nevada), the Orleans and MGM Grand, with Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, and New York-New York having announced plans to install the game. In Atlantic City, it's exclusive to Borgata. At least, that's our most recent information on placement.
I have a question I can't find a clear answer to. As a foreigner, what's the easiest way to deposit cash in Vegas? I'm not talking about big amounts, but what if I want to deposit $500? Or $5,000? Can I open a bank account in Vegas? Can the casino wire it for you? Do they charge for this service? What if it's table game or poker money? Will the casino still perform a wire if you have the chips on you? I've only heard about this with slot jackpot. It seems like getting cash is easy enough by using an ATM or depositing front money, but I never hear about getting money back home. Not that I pretend I'm going to win, but I wonder what happens to people who do and are foreigners.