Hard Rock Bet Launches New Form Of Online Sports Betting In Florida That Feels Like Slots
The new offering, available to some in the state, is based on historical NASCAR events
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Hard Rock Bet did not launch iCasino in Florida late Tuesday.
It did, however, launch “Games,” which is “Powered by Past Motor Racing.”
It is a new form of against-the-house sports betting believed to be allowed under the letter of the law of the 2021 gaming compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe.
And while it looks, feels, and acts like slots, people with knowledge of the situation point out that it is not, in fact, slots. It’s past motor racing with an entertaining, slot-like veneer — similar to the historical horse racing (HHR) concept.
The gameplay, however, feels like slots. Launched to a select group of Florida Hard Rock Bet customers, there are currently 21 titles in the Games lobby.
The minimum bet for any game is $1, which is the minimum sports betting wager allowed by Hard Rock. Again — this is classified as a sports bet.
Once a player launches one of the games — like Sahara Riches Megaways Collect ‘Em — and places a wager, the screen displays what appears to be a traditional slot interface: reels spinning with symbols like cherries, plums, and other familiar icons. But beneath that slot-like image, something different is happening that, according to a source at Hard Rock Bet, makes this legal.
Start your engines
Each “spin” is actually determined by the results of one or more historical stock car races from one or more years. The random number generator that typically powers slot machines has been replaced with actual sporting outcomes that have already occurred.
“What you see on the screen are just entertaining depictions of what happens,” the source explained.
The mechanics work like this: When you wager, you’re essentially betting on past racing results. If your selections — which correspond to racers from these historical events — finish in winning positions, you win. If they had longer odds, you win more. Hit a couple of first-place finishes from underdogs, and you might be looking at a jackpot.
For players who want to see behind the curtain, there’s a “Click to Enter Race View” button in the upper right corner of the screen. This reveals the actual racing results that determined the outcome — the specific date, the race, which selections were correct, and how the historical results translated into your win or loss.
“You can see kind of how it turned out, how many of your selections were correct,” the source said. Unlike traditional slots, where the RNG remains a black box, Hard Rock Bet’s approach offers transparency about which past sporting events generated your result.
The Games section appears prominently on the home screen with the tagline “Powered by Past Motor Racing” underneath.
When asked about the legal foundation for what appears to walk and talk like online casino gaming, the source stressed that this falls under the 2021 gaming compact between Florida and the Seminole Tribe, which permits wagering on past sporting events.
Whether Florida lawmakers envisioned this exact implementation when they approved wagering on past sporting events is unclear.
But the bottom line, according to Hard Rock Bet: It’s sports betting.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article said in error that the spin results are based on historical NASCAR races, when in fact they are based on non-branded stock car races.]
