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 AnalyzerComputer Chronicles Revisited 84 — Computer Sports World, Thoroughbred Handicapping System, and Pointspread AnalyzerComputer Chronicles #426 — Computers and GamblingUnited 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-GriffithsDownload this podcast (MP3)

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