When pigs fly: Hollywood casino promotes "Swiftest Swine off the Line"
Be prepared for bad name puns: Britney Spareribs, Arnold Schwarzenpigger and Hamma Montana. It's part of the Seminole Casino Hollywood "Hog Wild" promotion for February featuring (believed to be a local casino first) pig races.
The feature event is "the Swiftest Swine Off the Line," operated by the touring Arkansas company called the Ham Bone Express. The pigs, who presumably don't know they have funny names, are kept in a trailer near the casino, and the races are held outside.
The casino will conduct 14 drawings each Thursday through Sunday, with 16 gamblers' names pulled for each race. Drawing winners are divided into groups of four and the race off involves four heats of four pigs each.
The winner of each heat will select an envelope that contains up to $2,500 cash. The winner of the final race gets the cash.
Like the recent Tic-Tac-Doe Chicken at Mardi Gras Gaming, the animals are monitored round-the-clock, their keepers say.
Veterinarians also inspect the pigs every month and follow all the provisions of the USDA Animal Welfare Act, the casino says.
Seminole Hollywood will have a "circuit event" slot tournament from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, one of more to come.
The winner goes to the final, which will be at the Hard Rock.
The Seminole Hollywood and Seminole Hard Rock casinos combine for a $1 million slot tournament Sept. 11-13.
That seems like a lot of money for a slot tournament; still trying to gather the details.
Meanwhile, would a casino with pigs be something that entices you to visit?
More events at Seminole Hollywood include:
Other Seminole Hollywood promotions this month are also tied to the Hog Wild theme:
Pork Belly Buyout: Players who earn 500 points in a day can get one share of Pork Belly, Inc. Each day the casino will post a daily fair market value in free play. Guests can either trade in their share for free play or hold on to it for a better price.
Porky's $100,000 Payout: The casino will conduct 50 drawings for $1,000 cash each on Feb. 21 and 28.
"TV Tuesdays" from 5 to 9 p.m., with drawings every 20 minutes for a 42-inch digital LCD set.
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, moved on to "night baseball" and "pass the trash" during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold 'Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel...which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
