plastic pony
n.— «An increasing number of punters are turning to football and other sports, but the fastest growth area has been in fixed-odds virtual games, from touch-screen roulette slot machines to computer-generated horse races—known to punters as “the plastic ponies.”» —“Virtual racing claims 17% of betting on horses” by SImon Bowers Guardian (United Kingdom) Aug. 13, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Joe from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, asks about pony, the term he and his fellow maritime academy students used to mean “a practice test” or “a copy of a previous test” to help them crib for an exam. Among 19th-century British students, the slang term...
You know the expression fly in the ointment: It’s that glaring typo on an impressive resume or that first scratch on a brand-new car—the one little flaw that spoils it all. This phrase goes all the way back to the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes! And...