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.
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.
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How To Make Money At The Dog Track Without Gambling
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.
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.
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.
