Happy to oblige. Sigma Derby and where to find it was the subject of one of the earliest QoDs we ever ran, back in May, 2005. Since then it's been an FAQ that we address from time to time, the last occasion being in October, 2007. Each time we research it, it turns out a few more games have bitten the dust and this time was no exception...
For those of you who don't know the game and didn't catch the previous answers, Sigma Derby is an endearingly low-tech electronic horse-racing game with a horrible house edge (12%-15%) that was often found close to the race and sports book. Up to 10 people could play at any time and everyone sat around the miniature "track" as five mechanical horses competed in race after race. The minimum bet was 25ยข and the only bet you could make was a "quinella," i.e., choosing which two horses would finish first and second, in either order.
Until not too many years ago, Derby was available in at least 10 casinos around Las Vegas, including the Hilton, Orleans, MGM Grand, New York-New York, Caesars Palace, Imperial Palace, Riviera, Bally's, New Frontier, Excalibur, and Luxor (which had racing camels instead of horses). One by one they all disappeared, however (as did one of the casinos) and for some time the only remaining game in Las Vegas is to be found near the race and sports book at the MGM Grand. Yep, it's still there -- we called to check.
A few years back, we heard reports of a new "hi-tech" (or at least higher-tech) version called Derby VI, which was spotted by an LVA reader at the Silver Slipper in Lakeshore, Mississippi (and was also sighted in Japan). A call to the Slipper revealed that that one's gone, as has the traditional Sigma game that was formerly at the Horizon, Lake Tahoe. However, Horizon's machine still exists and has been relocated to Tahoe's newish Montbleu casino, where, we were assured, it can be found located close to the Sun Bar. The game at what's now Caesars Windsor disappeared from the casino floor in early 2007, we're sorry to relate.
