Florida’s Sneaky Slots: Hard Rock’s Clever New Bet

Hard Rock Digital just quietly launched a product that may change the way we talk about iGaming in the US. In fact, they may have just kicked off a new front in online casinos in the third most populous state in the country with barely even a press release. 

On October the 28th, Hard Rock Digital rolled out something akin to the historical horse racing (HHR) slots found in several states around the country but run on old NASCAR games. For those of you that have never seen them, you probably have a confusing mental image about a horse race being streamed on a large monitor before the slot comes to a decision, but that is not at all the case. 

Ainsworth, Exacta, and other manufacturers have made land based versions of these horse racing machines, which do in fact use a tiny screen to show the results of a horse race that has been selected randomly from its database, but this happens in the background, and then that parimutuel data is ported to basically any slot type to provide payout results that are not just virtually but actually indistinguishable from the normal action of that slot.

It’s just using randomly selected race data to drive results. It’s actually a bit more complicated than that even, as each bet actually becomes part of a simulated pari-mutuel pool that has been seeded by the operator to ensure there is always liquidity. There is a banked pool seed reserve and all kinds of other technical machinations to make a slot where perhaps only one person is playing become a pari-mutuel game under the law. 

Suffice it to say it has had a mixed record in legal review from courts around the country. See notably Louisiana, Idaho, and Oregon, but at least seven states currently allow HHR slots. But the takeaway here is that these machines look and act like a slot machine and are currently able to run some of the most popular slot titles in the country. 

The Seminole tribe, which owns Hard Rock and Hard Rock Digital, was granted exclusive rights to offer online sports betting in Florida in a hard-fought legal case that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2024 before being turned away. 

They have rapidly expanded in the state, though, since their win against West Flagler legitimized their so-called hub and spoke model, which essentially means that all bets placed around the state actually occur in servers on tribal land, making them legal under the state’s compact with the tribe. 

While iGaming has always been on the table, this new product, which they are calling “games powered by past motor races,” is a new take on the old HHR slots. It would appear to be legal under their sportsbook compact and, more importantly, won’t need to operate under the constraints of pari-mutuel racing laws, as that is not at all how NASCAR races work. But again, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

And if you take a look at their current 21 games, they offer a whole lot of quacking, as these machines look and play just like the originals to all intents and purposes. Their Oink, Oink, Oink game looks to be heavily influenced by the Light and Wonder smash hit, Three Rich Piggies, and we will let Buffalo Blitz and the megaways game Sahara Riches pass without comment. 

So what happens now, with 21, essentially slot games, on the only sports betting site of a state with more than 24 million people? What is Florida’s next move? Florida politics is a microcosm of Florida itself. Wild, raucous, and for the most part unpredictable. A backdoor attempt at iGaming would certainly draw not only ire but also quick legal action in most states. 

The Seminoles were originally granted the right to negotiate in good faith with the state over legal iGaming by Governor DeSantis, but it was pulled by conservative House Republicans in May of 2021 in order to ease passage of the rest of the compact. 

It seems unlikely that this same group of legislators are likely to throw up much of a fuss currently, as the political climate has changed, and though Governor DeSantis will leave office in December 2026 due to term limits, both he and the tribe will have much more political clout for years further on.  

It is even possible that the Tribe sees defacto online slots as a way to dangle a larger revenue share for the state if they were to be granted actual online table games and slots that don’t run on old NASCAR games.

And even Florida politicians might be convinced that a piece of something as big as a monopoly iGaming license is better than the small ball numbers the state will see from Games Powered By Past Motor Races, if they don’t cut a deal. 

If nothing else, it’s proof that innovation doesn’t wait for permission. The question now is whether Florida calls this a loophole or whether this is the starting line for something much bigger.