Casino Gaming Comes to Alabama

After fighting the issue for years, Alabama now has casino slot style gaming.  Although these are classified “Electronic Bingo Parlors” make no bones about it, these are casinos filled with slot machines. The only difference? Instead of just inserting your money, pushing a button or pulling the handle then watching the wheels spin, you get to select a bingo card and based on certain “bingo’s” you win. This act alone, allows you to participate in the potential outcome of that particular spin on the wheel.  Thus, according to the casino owners, it is no longer just a game of chance.

The Poarch Creek Indians got the wheels spinning opening the initial casino in Wetumpka, Alabama to the dismay of the locals. However, their attitudes have changed a little since many of the locals have been hired to work in the casino, plus the additional traffic brought into the area has increased revenue for other local business.  The Riverside Casino in Wetumpka just completed an addition to the facility and now offers up nearly a thousand machines, affordable buffet, and a large screen bar area where you can watch sporting events.

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Along with the Riverside Casino, the Poarch Creek Indians operate the Tallapoosa Casino located along the Tallapoosa River just outside Montgomery, Alabama and are about to complete the upgrade to their Atmore, Alabama facility with the Windcreek Casino and Hotel. According the PCI, the Windcreek Casino and Hotel will be a full-blown a first class operation.  Fine dining, thousands of machines, lodging and entertainment. The Windcreek Casino and Hotel is scheduled for a January 2009 opening.

Not to be outdone and for a fight for survival, the area dog tracks have gotten into the action. Both Greene and Macon counties voted to change their constitutions to allow for “Electronic Bingo” for the much beleaguered dog tracks that were in jeopardy of shutting down.

Greenetrack located off Interstate 59/20 neat Eutaw, Alabama has just over 1500 machines and should you get tired of playing the machines, you can head upstairs and bet on the greyhound races that occur every evening.

The big dog in the state is Victoryland. Located on Interstate 85, twenty miles east of Montgomery, Alabama, is nearing completion of its fourth expansion. Currently nearly 5000 machines are available for play, Victoryland is closest you will come to the casino gambling experience outside the Mississippi Gulf Coast or Tunica. The facilities at Victoryland are first-rate.  The Oasis Buffet serves up a decent variety of food, from southern fried chicken to crab claws and the recently opened Race and Sports Book Entertainment Center provides with the ability to bet on the on-site greyhound races, or pari-mutuel wagering for over forty tracks across the country. Want to watch sporting events, take your pick with 7 large projection and 38 plasma screens you can sit in comfort order up a beverage, sandwich and watch current events.

There you have it, casino gaming in Alabama, maybe sometime soon, they will be offering table games, but for now if slots are your passion then there is plenty to choose.

Casino Gaming Comes to Alabama is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Training Your Dog To Live With Cats

Dogs and cats can make natural bedfellows – quite literally. Though many dogs chase cats naturally because of their hunting instinct, it can be easy for them to co-exist. All it takes is a little patience.

It’s very important to socialise your dog with cats even if you don’t have one. That way you can go to other places with cats – friends houses, pubs/bars, hotels, vets (you will need to do that occasionally of only for vaccinations!) – and know that your dog will be well behaved.

I have ex-racing greyhounds as part of my ‘pack’. In all, I’ve owned 6 greyhounds of my own in the last 10 years and fostered several through rescue. I’ve had other dogs as well, most through rescue routes. And I’ve still got my fat cat Hoolie who has lived with dogs all her life.

ALL of these dogs have been trained to live with cats reasonably easily. In some cases it was a matter of minutes, in others a few weeks. I know that I can go anywhere with them and they will love to meet the resident cat – even if the cat doesn’t like them!

If you get a rescue dog, always see if the rescue centre can give you any indication of results of their own cat testing. Some places do cat testing and others do not. However remember that some dogs are so traumatised by their background that you might not get a fair reading of the situation until they have been in a home environment and settled down.

If you get a puppy from a breeder who has cats themselves, this is a good start but you should continue that cat training as the puppy matures. That will build on the good foundations they already have.

If you don’t have a cat of your own, find a friend with a cat who can help out. Or maybe a local rescue centre that has ‘centre cats’ (eg they lie on the reception desk) might help you. Dog behaviourists or the breeder might also be willing to assist.

I thought I would describe what I do with my dogs, including puppies. This works with a cat which is reasonably well adjusted and not overly timid or nervous. This is just my system and is has worked well for me in the past.

I introduce them first inside the house. Getting the dog used to the cat indoors means that you can then do the same training outdoors. This is so the dog learns that cats are not to be chased indoors or out.
I always introduce the dog to the cat. It’s difficult to get someone to bring a cat close to a dog if the cat doesn’t want to go. Have you tried giving a cat a tablet, or trying to put it into a cat box to take it to the vets? It’s like trying to untangle a very strong, slippery octopus.
I have the dog and cat in the same room with the doors closed. There is always somewhere high for the cat to leap to, out of reach of dog nose, such as the back of a high sofa, window sill, bookshelf or similar.
I try as far as possible to have someone else with me, armed with a squeezy water bottle or good water pistol – you’ll see why in a minute (it’s something to do with not quite having enough hands!)
The cat is allowed to be free in the room. The dog is kept leaded (leashed) and muzzled in the case of ex-racing greyhounds or any rescue dog where history is uncertain. In the case of new puppies, leaded (leashed) should be sufficient.
Keep the dog sitting or standing next to you. Hold the lead firmly. Watch the body language – if the hackles (fur on the back of the neck) rise and the dog goes stiff, it’s squaring up for a lunge.
If the dog lunges at the cat, immediately correct with a sharp pull back on the lead accompanied by a firm loud ‘NO’ or ‘LEAVE’ command. Don’t shout or scream but raise your voice enough to make it understood this is not acceptable. (The cat might leap up high to get out of the way.)
If you can, at the same time, the dog lunges, get the other person to squirt the dog with water between the eyes. If you don’t have a friend, squirt the dog yourself as best you can as soon as the lunge starts. And it’s only water so the floor or carpet will dry out pretty quickly. Greyhounds and sighthounds generally don’t tend to like water so this is a great non-physical method of making it unpleasant for them to lunge at the cat. Many other dogs are the same. It doesn’t tend to work so well with water dogs or working dogs such as labradors or spaniels!
Repeat the process until you see the dog is calming down and learning that lunging at the cat = being reprimanded and squirted.
When the dog stops lunging reward with praise ‘good boy/girl’, a pat or stroke and a treat.
Repeat the process until the dog and cat actually meet up and can sniff each other. At this point, ensure that the dog is still held very firmly on the lead (leash). If your dog is muzzled, do not take off the muzzle until you are sure they will not lunge and bite. This might take a while. Some dogs are very intelligent and will bide their time. Reward all good behaviour positively with praise and treats.
After the dog and cat have sniffed each other, a good sign is when the cat actually rubs against the dog. This is saying ‘you are my friend’. Cats have scent glands on their heads so when they rub their heads against you it’s marking you as ‘territory’ and ‘friend’.
If the dog responds well to that by calm acceptance and sniffing the cat’s bottom, rather than lunging and barking, reward with treats.
At this point, I would try letting the dog have the full length of the lead (leash) but keep it muzzled if a muzzle has been used all along, walking it around the room with the cat still in residence.
Once all lunging behaviour, including any suggestion of lunging has ceased, I would then allow the dog off the leash. This is when having two people working together on the dog is helpful – if you do suddenly get a lunge/chase, there is more than one set of hands to grab the dog.
Always throughout the process reinforce good behaviour with praise/treats so the dog learns ‘nice to the cat = treats’ and ‘lunging at the cat = unpleasant things’.
Once the dog and cat have accepted each other, allow them to reside in each other’s space under close supervision. NEVER leave a dog and cat alone together in a room or a house until you are completely satisfied that they get along completely.

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Sometimes the entire process can take only a few minutes. But sometimes it might take much longer. Be prepared for this and break the process down into bite sized chunks. If you sense that either animal is getting tired/stressed, STOP immediately and give them both a rest. Half an hour at a time is more than enough. Spread those training chunks over as many days as is necessary.

Make sure the dog and cat can have separate rooms or spaces in the house in between sessions. Some people allow the cat to be upstairs and the dog downstairs while the training is taking effect. They should not come into contact without supervision until you are happy with the cat and the dog behaving themselves correctly.

It helps if you use a crate as the dog (and cat) beds because then they can both be confined when you are not around. Alternatively, you could crate them alternately – the dog in their crate and the cat out, and the cat in their crate and the dog out.

Always make sure you fully supervise all interactions until you are sure that there is no problem.

Once this is done, move the process outside into your garden or yard and start all over again.

This is the process which has always worked well for me in the past. Different people may have different strategies. There is also information on the internet about cat training so consult that too.

The key to successful cat/dog training is to always read your own animals’ body language. You know them better than me so you’ll have a good idea which bits of this process work well for you and which might not.

Training Your Dog To Live With Cats is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Watch Loyola

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Watch Loyola is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Are you a gambler? Do you like to take a chance on making money? Are you a risk taker who gets a thrill out of putting your money where your mouth is? If so, I doubt very much that you’re doing very well at the dog track.

Gambling isn’t handicapping. Gambling is taking a chance, sometimes just for the sake of taking a chance. It can be thrilling, but it can also be expensive. I know professional gamblers who have won and lost several fortunes and they’re not happy people.

It might sound glamorous to describe yourself as a professional gambler to other people, but there’s nothing impressive about depending on luck to win money. That’s what gambling is really.

Handicapping, on the other hand, is using a tried and true method to predict which dogs will be first over the line, based on factors that have predicted that many times in the past.

To my mind, this is the only sensible and rewarding way to approach making money at the track.

A professional handicapper is a person who uses intelligence and logic to pick winners. Professional gamblers use luck and hunches and very unscientific ways to pick dogs. And the ones I know don’t pick enough winners to pay their bar tabs, never mind their bills.

If you want to make money at greyhound handicapping, find a system that works and forget about luck and hunches and betting on dogs that “look good”. Use proven factors that reliably predict which dog has the edge over the others.

Take time and put in effort, instead of relying on luck. As the old saying goes, “Luck favors the prepared man.” Greyhound handicappers prepare for the races by weighing each dog against the other dogs. Gamblers waltz in and depend on luck to make their picks for them.

If you want to have a thrill and don’t mind paying for it, be a gambler. But if you want to make money and consider cashing big tickets thrilling enough, take the time and put in the effort to be a handicapper.

How To Make Money At The Dog Track Without Gambling is a post from: Greyhound Betting

How To Beat The Odds Every Time At The Dog Track

Do you pick a lot of winners, but still go home with less money than you went to the dog track with? That’s much more common than you might think. A lot of people can pick winners and still lose bets.

Maybe you’ve noticed how often favorites come in at the greyhound track. The crowd is actually pretty good at picking dogs who have a good chance of winning. However, if you bet favorites in every race, you won’t make money. Neither does the crowd.

It sounds crazy, doesn’t it, that you can pick winners and lose. Well, even more unbelievably, you can win without picking winners. I do it all the time.

Okay, so I’m kind of playing with words here, but the concept is real. I don’t handicap to pick a winner in each race. My method of picking contenders starts by eliminating dogs who don’t measure up to the factors I use to handicap greyhound races.

Rather than looking for dogs I think can win, I look for dogs that look like they’re not capable of winning. It’s exactly the opposite approach from how most people pick dogs. It’s not until I’ve narrowed it down to four dogs that I consider betting on a race.

When I bet, I have no idea which of those four dogs will win. I may favor one or two dogs over the others, but because I bet quiniela boxes, it doesn’t matter to me which dog wins.

As long as two of my dogs are the quiniela – the first and second dogs – I cash my ticket. The payoff may be different, depending on which dog was at what odds. Of course, it’s best if the dog at the longest odds is first.

However, which of them wins is of less consideration for me than the fact that TWO of my dogs came in. This is why I can pick three dogs that don’t win and still cash my ticket. If I were to play Win bets, I’d be out of luck unless the dog I picked to win came in first.

This is why, for my money, the quiniela box with 3 or 4 dogs is the best bet at the dog track.

How To Beat The Odds Every Time At The Dog Track is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Greyhound Handicapping In the Rain

Article by Eb Netr

Sooner or later, it happens to every bettor. You’re all ready to go to the track. You’ve handicapped the program and found a slew of good bets. You even have some extra money in your pocket and your spouse has gone out with a friend, so you won’t be accused of neglect. You grab your keys, head out to the car and get about halfway to the track when it starts to rain.

The forecast didn’t call for rain, but apparently the weather gods didn’t listen to the forecast, because it’s pouring as you park in the track parking lot and sit there thinking about whether you even want to go in now. After all, who knows what’s gonna happen with the track getting wetter by the minute?

Well, if you’d done our homework, you’d know. Rain has an effect on the dogs at every track, but every track is different, so you have to study your track’s track bias when it’s wet. My approach is to go online and get a program, even when I’m not going to bet or go to the track that day. That way, I can see which dogs run well when it’s wet and which dogs don’t. Like people, there are a few dogs who just hate getting wet. Not many, but some, and it’s important to know which ones they are.

No matter how good some dogs look, if they hate having mud kicked up in their faces, they’re not going to give it their best effort. Other dogs, however, who may just be so-so runners on a dry track, actually love running in the mud and – like little kids – splash cheerfully through even the biggest puddles all the way to the finish line.

Sometimes, and this is true of my favorite track, heavy dogs are favored when the track is wet. When it rains, I like to look for a heavy dog with some early speed who’s at decent odds. Then I bet it to win and place. You’d be surprised at how often people overlook this, although the horse players know about it from betting “mudders” at the horse track.

Also at my favorite track and maybe at yours, when the track goes beyond muddy to sloppy, things change. Heavy dogs stop coming in and smaller dogs, often older dogs and it seems to me that a lot of them are females, seem to skim right over the mud to win for fun.

So, keep an eye on the weather and its effects on the track and the dogs at your track. Look back at a dog’s previous races and look for races designated “M” for muddy or “S” for sloppy. See how they did and which box they did the best from on muddy or sloppy tracks. That way, even when it rains, you’ll have the edge to win in spite of the weather.

Greyhound Handicapping In the Rain is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Winning at the Dog Track With Insider Tips

When I first started going to the track, greyhound racing was in its glory days. They still paraded the dogs to the starting boxes with a post parade and even played march music when they did it. The bettors paid attention too, because there were no simulcasts, slots or poker rooms to distract them. Greyhound handicappers watched each race carefully, made notes on their programs and some of them even kept track of First to Turn Times.

Purely by accident, the area I chose to sit in up in the grandstand was where the kennel owners and dog handlers sat. They’d talk about their dogs and I’d listen and pick up tips that you just can’t get without listening to insiders. I didn’t do it on purpose, but it was a lucky break and has a lot to do with my attitude toward winning at the dog track.

What insider information did I learn? Well, I don’t remember all of it. I’ve learned so much over the last 30 some-odd years that I’m not sure where it all came from. But here are a few insider tips that I picked up from the kennel owners and dog trainers.

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> Young dogs need more running room than older, seasoned dogs. So if you see a young dog with good early speed in the 8 box, give him a close look. If he can outbreak the other dogs, he has a good chance of running away with the race.

> If there’s a lot of early speed in a race, look for a dog who can close at the end of the race. Many times, the speedballs burn each other out and the closer gets in there at the end.

> If a young dog wins within 3 races of starting in M, bet it in its first race in J or D, whichever the racing secretary puts it in, at least in quinielas.

> Never bet a young dog in its first race in A or AA, whichever is the top grade at the track. No matter how good it looks, it has a very small chance of running in the money in its first race.

> Big, male dogs often take longer to get into their stride, as puppies, than smaller females. They mature more slowly but may still turn out to be good dogs. Because they take so long to get out of M, they may be good bets when they start running closer to the winners. Keep an eye on them.

> The best distance dogs are often small females, and they very often have long careers. If you look at route races, it’s interesting how many times a female wins. Keep an eye on them, especially if they have a few shorter sprint races to “freshen them up”.

I can’t tell you how many times knowing these few things has helped me win at the dog track. They don’t always work, but they work often enough to make them worth knowing. They’re something to keep in mind when you’re handicapping the dogs.

Winning at the Dog Track With Insider Tips is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Greyhound Handicapping – Keying a Dog

Although I usually handicap dog races by eliminating dogs who aren’t contenders for one reason or the other, once in awhile I do it differently. I pick a key dog who I think has a very good chance of being in the trifecta and I wheel it or key it.

I only do this when I’m way ahead on winnings and I only do it when the dog is a solid, very impressive contender. For instance, when I see a dog that has a high winning and quiniela percentage, in a post position it loves, where it will be able to run on the part of the track that it loves, I think of keying it.

But before I do, I look at the other dogs. If none of them are even close to this dog in class, speed and determination, I continue to think about playing the key dog. But, once again, before I do that, I look at where the other dogs run, how fast they get out of the box and whether they’ll be liable to cause trouble for the key dog as the race unfolds.

To do this, I have to imagine in my mind how the dogs will break and how they’ll gain speed as they head for the first turn. In the first turn, I’ll have to try to figure out how each dog’s probable behavior will impact the key dog and each other.

For instance, if there’s a dog that tends to go wide on turns, where will it be in relation to my key dog? Will my key dog be far enough ahead of the pack to avoid trouble? These and other questions all have to be answered, before I leave the first turn scenario behind and go on to the second turn, the backstretch, the final turn and the final stretch.

If there doesn’t seem to be any other dog that can impede or stop my key dog’s run, I bet the key dog to in a trifecta wheel over four other dogs that I think have a chance of being right behind it. Rarely, when I’m very sure of my pick, do I bet a key dog to win and place over all the other dogs in the race.

It’s not something I recommend doing, unless you have very deep pockets. Better, I think, to try to find 3 or 4 other dogs to put with the key. This will often result in a very nice payoff for the smart bettor who holds the key to the race.

Greyhound Handicapping – Keying a Dog is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Learn how to get the maximum sport betting tips. The optimum the net details

In the United Says of The usa there are specific says the place greyhound racing is banned and in some states it is held professionally – the word specialized here refers to the way the greyhound is skilled to comprehensive the race.

Most of the time in the US, pet owners will hand through their greyhound to a coach some two to 3 weeks earlier than an important race. Throughout this crucial period of time, the trainer will instruct the needed abilities essential for the greyhound to comprehensive the race. It will be taken all-around the track, so that it gets applied to the ecosystem. In the course of this schooling period, the trainers have to follow the recommendations provider by the American Grey Hound Association.

The American Greyhound Association delivers a guide that desires to be followed by the instructors without having deviating from it. The guidelines include things like the food that desires to be taken by the greyhound and the form of training that requires to be presented to the greyhound. There have been reviews of the trainers and the owners about burdening the greyhound by giving abnormal instruction. So the AGA conducts frequent audits wherever the greyhound is stored to locate out regardless of whether the puppy has been abused. The AGA has been performing this service as animal welfare organizations had been routinely complaining about the poor health situation of greyhounds.

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In the course of the days major to the race day the greyhound ought to be set n the kennels near the racetrack. In the circumstance of non-specialist races, exactly where this occasion is held as a enjoyment activity, the proprietor himself seems soon after the dog and doesn’t get the products and services of a skilled coach. In these newbie races, there is no funds concerned. In this sort of informal races, there is no require for the puppy to stay close the racecourse and there are no guidelines that govern people casual races.

Simulcasting has seriously transformed the taking part in discipline when it arrives to greyhound racing and horse racing, hasn’t it? Some of us try to remember the previous days when there was only a single track to perform and you had to generate there to perform it. Not any longer.

At most tracks, even when there’s are living racing, most of the bettors are also actively playing simulcasts and could not even go exterior when the are living races run. I imagine that’s a huge error. One particular of the very best factors to go to the track is since it is the only position wherever you can truly see what’s heading on although the races are working.

Viewing races from a different track on a Tv display screen just isn’t going to indicate you some of the points that can influence the final result of the races. Track bias and track problem, for a single matter, are more difficult to spot on the simulcast display than they are in individual. A reduced spot on a flip or the track remaining groomed among races is not something you’ll see on Tv.

Then there are the canines, by themselves. You only get to see them for a number of seconds when they weigh them in, if then.

Learn how to get the maximum sport betting tips. The optimum the net details is a post from: Greyhound Betting

Greyhound Handicapping – Are The Races Rigged?

From the time the first caveman bet the second caveman that the wooly mammoth would beat the saber tooth tiger that was chasing him, people have been winning and losing money. Losing is no fun. Maybe that’s why a lot of people don’t want to admit that it’s their fault.

They look for outside reasons for why that sure-thing didn’t come in. I’ve heard a lot of stories about how races are fixed. Some sound kind of logical, but some are pretty far out. Have you heard the one about the guy on the roof with the ray gun?

I first heard it at a track in New England where a stooper (someone who bends over looking for winning tickets that were thrown away by accident) swore to me that he’d seen the guy. “He had a green jacket on and a gimme hat and he was pointing that ray gun at the dogs. Just as he did that, the lead dog slowed down and the second dog crashed into it and there went my quiniela.”

“So how does this ray gun work?” I asked him. “How does it slow down the dogs?”

He just shrugged and moved off, looking for winning tickets on the floor. “I think it’s some kind of cosmic ray,” he yelled back to me.

I don’t think so. I think that it might have been someone clocking the dogs with a radar gun to check their speed. Or it might have been someone out on the roof for a smoke, with a big old cigar or something else in their hand and his imagination did the rest.

I’m not so naive as to think that no one ever attempts to fix a race at the dog track. I’m sure with that much money around, greedy or desperate people give it a go from time to time. One thing I do know though from working for track kennels is that the owners and trainers would never do anything to permanently harm a dog. They’d be hurting themselves if they did.

They spend a lot of money, time and effort working to get dogs to the point where they make money. They’d be stupid to waste their time and effort trying to “nobble” dogs instead of working to make them faster and smarter about racing.

That said, I’ll admit that some of the races I’ve watched have been screwy to the point where I ask myself if someone wasn’t messing with the dogs. But then I go home and watch my usually graceful Black Lab chase her tennis ball and she manages to run into it and gets bopped on the head and I realize that even greyhounds can make mistakes when they’re running at 45 mph or more with their minds on catching the lure and nothing else.

Greyhound Handicapping – Are The Races Rigged? is a post from: Greyhound Betting