After the high concept confusion of the museum I needed something more familiar; cheap beer and gambling. Portland Meadows didn’t disappoint. I didn’t have experience with betting on horses, but I do have experience losing money. Thanks to a quick online tutorial I was ready to convert my hard earned dollars into easily earned millions. After perusing the program I walked up to the betting machine and made my first bet. I bet on two long shots to show, stranger things have happened, right? I then went and looked at the horses. Here I realized I’d made a huge mistake. One of the horses I’d bet on was much smaller than the others. The other was freaking out and couldn’t be controlled. And as my friend pointed out, the number six horse, one I hadn’t bet on, looked awesome. I agreed, to my untrained eye, he looked fast. Turns out he was. I lost this race, I had yet to refine my system. Nothing a $1 beer couldn’t fix.
For the rest of the night I stuck to the program’s suggested picks. Mostly these paid off, usually in increments of dimes and quarters. The big surprise was when of the favorites was slow out the gate and remained a dozen yards behind for the entire race. My taunts did nothing to speed him towards the finish line. I left slightly down, not much. Unlike a blackjack table where everybody can watch me hit on a 17 and see my stack of chips diminish here nobody was the wiser to my haphazard betting schemes. I’ll be back, but this time I’ll be looking at the horses before I bet on them.