For fans of this game, the D now stands for Derby, as the long-awaited Sigma Derby machine debuted there at the end of June. The machine is the same one that used to be at the New Frontier. It was repaired, then inspected by Gaming authorities, and is now one of only three operating in Nevada; the other two are at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and MontBleu in Lake Tahoe.
Derby is a mechanical horse-racing game. Five horses run in each race and the only wagers you can make are quinellas, which are bets on which horses will finish first and second in any order. The minimum bet is 25¢ and the maximum is $5 per quinella and there is no limit on how many "Qs" you can play. Payouts are set by the machine before each race. As you’d expect, the lower-odds choices are more likely to come in, though long-odds combos also show up.
Studies on this game (the best at wizardofodds.com) indicate that the house edge ranges from 10% to 20%, depending on what a particular game has been programmed to hold. Based on a brief observation at the D, we put the house edge at 15%-17% for this machine. It takes 30 seconds for a race to run and there’s a 40-second break between races, resulting in about 51 races per hour. Hence, playing just 25¢ per race results in an expected loss of only about $2 per hour -- a very frugal gambling choice. However, the high house edge can generate a much higher per-hour expected loss if you bet more.
Despite a supposed devoted following for the game, Derby has all but disappeared, which indicates that that following hasn’t been devoted enough for the game to warrant the space it takes on the floor. The D brought it back as part of a retro-gambling theme planned for its second-floor casino, where there will likely be other vintage machines, including coin-dropping, and maybe even handle-pulling, slots.
