Chronicles Revisited Podcast 13 — Greed Is the Key Word

Chronicles Revisited Podcast 13: Greed Is the Key Word 0:00/1130.352 1×

In 1980, Mattel Electronics released the Horse Race Analyzer, a calculator-type device that promised to help you pick winning horses at the track. Developed by a former cosmetics marketing executive and a college mathematics professor, a Mattel executive claimed you would get a better return using the Analyzer to place winning bets than from purchasing U.S. government Treasury Bills. But at an initial retail price of $100, the device failed to match the success of Mattel’s earlier handheld games. Yet the Horse Race Analyzer continued to be sold for more than a decade after Mattel Electronics itself collapsed and even made a brief appearance on a March 1987 Computer Chronicles episode. CCR Special 11 — The Mattel Electronics Horse Race Analyzer Computer Chronicles Revisited 84 — Computer Sports World, Thoroughbred Handicapping System, and Pointspread Analyzer Computer Chronicles #426 — Computers and Gambling United States Patent 4,382,280 — Electronic Horse Race Analyzer (Evan W. Mandel and William Quirin, 1983) They Create Worlds, Volume 1 (Alexander Smith/CRC Press, 2019) Podcast Music: ‘Scenic Detour’ by Melody Ayres-Griffiths