Five little horses, one race for the whole casino. Pick two horses to finish first and second, in either order — that’s a quinella — and if they do, your pair pays the odds on its plate.
Play money only: nothing to buy, no sign-up. The same rules and payouts as below.
The bet: a pair
The felt in the middle of the track has ten pairs, every two of the five horses: 1–2, 1–3 … 4–5. Back 2–4 and you win if horses 2 and 4 come home first and second — 2 then 4, or 4 then 2. If either one is third or worse, the bet loses. Back as many pairs as you like.
The odds plates
Each pair has a brass plate with what it pays, to 1: from 2 to 1 for the favourites up to 200 to 1 for the long shots. They’re new every race, set when betting opens and fixed from then on — a $5 bet at 12 to 1 wins $60 and gets its $5 back. The tote board shows each horse’s line too, for show. Nobody else’s bets change your price.
Your chips, on the rail
Take a place at the rail with chips from your pocket. They sit in the rail along your edge, by colour. Tap a colour to bet with that chip, then tap a pair to put one down; tap again for another. $1 to $500 on a pair. Betting is open for up to 90 seconds; the bugle’s Call to the Post closes it.
Take a chip back
Changed your mind? Hold a pair (or right-click it) to take a chip back off it, or Clear to take them all — any time before the bugle.
Ready
Bets down and nothing to wait for? Tap Ready. Once everyone with a bet down is ready, betting closes and the race goes — no waiting out the clock. Watchers without a bet don’t hold it up, and alone at the rail you go at once. The line under the race shows how many are ready (“2 of 3 ready”). Change a bet and you’re not ready any more; tap Ready again when you are. Next race, on an empty felt, Ready · $X puts last race’s bets down again and says you’re ready.
The race
The bell, the gate, and they’re off: Velvet Thunder, Midnight Marker, Fremont Flyer, Neon Lady, Loose Change — the same stable every race, though the odds and the result are new each time. Watch the felt: the pair that would win if they finished right now glows, and moves as the places change — brighter, with a chime, when it’s yours.
A photo finish
When it’s a nose at the wire, the machine’s camera decides: the photo drops in at the corner, and the result is official a moment later. Winners are paid in stacks onto your rail; losing chips are swept. A card over the track shows everyone who had a bet — who won and how much, winners first, your own line lit — so the whole rail sees who cashed (tap it to fold it away).
Fair, and you can check it
Each race’s result is decided before betting opens — never by the animation, and never after the bets are in. When betting opens the race’s fingerprint is posted in the line under the race: a code made from the race’s secret seed, which can’t be worked backwards. When betting closes the seed itself is shown. Its fingerprint (SHA-256) has to match the one posted before you bet — the room checks it for you and says so — and the whole race, odds and finish included, runs from that seed. Tap the fingerprint line to see both and check it yourself.
What every bet pays, and the house edge
The house edge is how much of each bet the casino keeps over the long run — the lower, the better for you.
Bet
Pays
House edge
Quinella Two horses to finish first and second, in either order. The price is on the pair’s plate, new every race; the edge is about 15% across a race’s pairs.
2–200 to 1
15.0%
Tips
Spread small bets over a few pairs, or one bigger one on a pair you like — the house keeps about the same share either way.
The favourites come in often and pay little; a long shot pays a lot because it almost never comes in.
Every horse wins one race in five in the long run: no horse is lucky, and the stable’s names are just for cheering.
A free bet from your host (a comp) waits by your rail: tap it, then a pair. One a race, any pair, up to its face. If the pair comes in you’re paid the odds on it in real chips — but a free bet’s stake isn’t returned. If not, it’s gone. It earns no comps of its own.
Turn the caller off for just the machine’s sound: the microphone up top (in Settings on a phone).