People are getting so emotional about Prop 1 and I just don't understand or just don't seem to care. Normally I'd vote no on just about any ballet prop but this one especially seems to have the liberals screaming for a no vote.

Anyone have any insight?

I skimmed over the Idaho Statesman's reasons on why this is bad, and it amounted to, "Supporters are taking too much money for themselves and not giving enough to schools."

I don't see the harm in supporting this measure, since the money will be coming from voluntary, private transactions with some benefit to public education.  I don't see how it could be considered a tax on the people participating as the hosts are the ones willingly giving the money, and the clientele are choosing to pay them.

Someone jump in and fix me if I'm wrong.

The only thing I think that I've seen that somewhat makes sense is Indians don't want this to pass because it could take money away from their casinos, otherwise I'm not seeing any reason so many people are against it.

Has anyone seen a "pro" Prop 1 ad that actually shows the machines in question or mentions that the whole issue is over video gaming machines ?  All I see are ads full of generic families claiming we have to save the horse racing industry.

I think it says something when the pro side can't even talk about what they are really after.  If you want gaming, great have at it, but let's be honest about what it is.  Yes, it's voluntary, affects only those who choose to play, so why all the mystery?

I found this video that explains it




So yeah it doesn't have much to do with "horse racing" it's a slot machine work around.

Here's another video that haves good info

So how does this work?  It sounds like you're shown a still image from a horse race that happened in the past, and you have to have the historical context to pick the correct winner?

From what I understand, it's called "historical horse racing" because it takes the results of a previously run horse race and then some algorithm runs and mixes up the results. Then you play a slot machine, really, let's call it what it is, and it determines if you won or not based off of the numbers in that algorithm.

The reason it's not technically a slot machine is because a slot machine is pure RNG or random number generator. Because this is using an algorithm based off of previously won horse races it's not RNG and not a slot machine.

I guess this was legal for about one and a half years until legislatures saw that it's just a work around to allow slot machines and put the kibosh on it.

It's really just legalizing slot machines in Idaho but because you need horse races to get the numbers it increases the number of races.

Hmm I'm not sure now. It seems like you're betting on a previously run race but you don't know which one and you're only looking at stats and not horse names?

If they are anything like the ones in Portland, they are basically a slot machine and there is a little screen with a horse race.  Every time you hit the button the video of a 'random' horse race plays.  I think somehow that determines if you win, but really they look like slot machines (bars/cherries other things depending on the game).   My guess is casino tribes, and maybe close NV casinos are against it.  They say only a few (million) dollars a year will go to schools, but that's a few million less out of our property taxes.  I have no problems with that.