Given the pathetic state of the IL GOP perhaps Keyes will be asked to run for governor for the GOP.

Ditka! Ditka! Ditka!

The GOP must go back to square one in Illinois. No Ditkas and no raving loons like Keyes. If he could get it through his head that voters do not respond well to being morally hectored from the podium, then maybe just maybe he could have a political career.

Bart:

I agree that Alan Keyes was too conservative for Illinois, but he was not a "raving loon."

Vince: When a campaign makes someone like Al Sharpton seem calm and measured, "raving loon" is not unwarranted.

1. Horse betting isn't gambling, it's parimutel wagering.

2. Horseracing is a pastime with great appeal to Conservatives. Sucessful betting requires knowledge, intellect, math skills, and the ability to evaluate and take risks. One learns that reality is to complex to be reduced to a mechanical system.

3. It is an adult sport of great tradition, that you participate in, unlike other sports, which involve passively sitting in the stands unthinkingly adulating various egomaniacal millionaires who play kid's games with balls of some sort.

4. When a horse wins a race, he (or she) remains dignified. You will not see a race horse doing a ridiculous celebratory dance such as 'the dirty bird' or 'the sprinkler' in the winner's circle.

5. The brilliant conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott wrote a book on horse betting called 'A Guide to the Classics'.

6. Jockeys make me laugh.

carter,

I love the ponies. When my aunt was telling us about the book 'The Horse Whisperer' my response was "The only whisper I want to hear from a horse is 'Bet on Me in the Third.'" My dad taught me to read the Racing Form when I was in elementary school, and I own every book Andy Beyer has ever written on the subject. The roughly two minutes between loading them up and watching them cross the finish line is a rush unequalled anywhere in sports. And horse people have a million great stories, which is why Dick Francis should just wear a mask and a gun for what he does.

However, it most certainly is gambling. The takout on non-exotic bets is at least 17%, in other words for every dollar bet, no more than 83 cents is paid back. Your chances are better at roulette, blackjack and certainly craps. There are also fixes and games played all the time. One little example. Bet on name trainers who are having a bad meet at the end of the meet, because everybody works together to help them make their costs.

And I never bet on trotters.

Bart:

I never bet on trotters either, they are declasse, and how can you tell if they are trying?

Takeouts are too high. I still have a positive lifetime ROI, though. The ability to select from a larger pool of races via internet betting also helps.

To me the problem with gambling isn't gambling itself, it is that so much gambling has shifted from gambling that takes thought, such as horseracing, to the mindless and most insidious forms of gambling like slots and video poker.

Agreed, Carter.

Robert D Kaplan has referred to slot machines as a form of masturbation. Video poker, where nobody discloses what the terms are, is the same.

I do simulcasting all the time. Internet gambling other than football scares me, because I have an addictive personality. I'm decently ahead this year at football, and generally come home a little ahead from the track, but I wouldn't want to bet that I could make a living at either. Being ahead lifetime at the track like you are requires real skill which alas I don't think I have.

BTW, I'm sure that a few times I've seen trotter riders pull back on the reins as they approach the wire so they can get passed.

According to OJ, Keyes won. (about 21 zip as I recall). Now I'm just trying to figure out what race he was in since apparently wasn't the Senate race.

Bart:

I'm not a spectacular handicapper, but I'm ahead lifetime because I pick my spots and don't bet that often, and because of my approach I will on occasion cash huge overlays.

I determined once that if I tried to make a daily living at the track I would put in excruciating effort to earn over the long run close to minimum wage. But as hobby it's fine. Even losses are OK if they are small - do you spend less at the track than someone who buys season tickets to football or basketball? If so, who cares?

Horse racing is gambling. You can be addicted to it just like any other form of gambling, and ruin your family just as bad. But not all vices are equally appealing or destructive to everyone. So if you can handle it, good for you. But it's still gambling.

I'll bet about $100/game and study the college ranks to find a place where matchups matter. Usually, you can find a MWC or MAC or WAC game where you can out-perform the market. But then, you have to consider home field advantages like the fact that Wyoming is like a three fare zone from anywhere.

A friend of mine who is an EE professor and is the classic model of the 'evil genius' was a card counter for a few years, but he got barred from Vegas and Atlantic City went to using 8 decks with frequent shuffling, which he claimed meant that a counter was essentially working for minimum wage.

Chris is right. You really have to keep well within your budget. IT's so seductive and exciting that it is very hard not to overindulge. As the old joke goes, I went to Atlantic City in a $20000 car and came home in an $80000 bus.

Robert D Kaplan has referred to slot machines as a form of masturbation. Video poker, where nobody discloses what the terms are, is the same.

A little over 10 years ago, I was in Bullhead City, Arizona, for my father's funeral. Due to estrangement in a long-standing family feud, I was staying "across the river" at the Edgewater Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.

I paid $8 a night for a hotel room that matched the $100 a night rooms I'd seen at SF cons. All meals were $3 for all-you-can-eat buffets. (They obviously weren't making money off the rooms or meals.)

The way a casino hotel is laid out, you cannot go from anywhere to anywhere without crossing the casino floor -- row after row after row after row of slots. In front of each slot was someone that looked to be at least in their 70s or 80s (age, not year), some with walkers, some with oxygen tanks and tubes running out of them. Every one was dropping coins and pulling handles like automatons -- drop coin, pull handle, drop coin, pull handle, drop coin, pull handle, drop coin, pull handle...

I was at the Edgewater for three days while attending the wake, funeral, and disposition of property. Three days after I arrived, I crossed the casino floor to check out.

The same seventy-something and eighty-something snowbirds, with the same walkers, Oh-two tanks and tubes, in front of the same slots, drop coin, pull handle, drop coin, pull handle, drop coin, pull handle, drop coin, pull handle...

I read once that one preacher's image of Hell was an infinite Nevada casino floor. Maybe he was onto something, though I wouldn't go that far. At the very least, it was one of the creepiest and most pathetic experiences in my life, watching those automatons going through the motions in front of the spinning slots, over and over until death took them to "That Big Casino in the Sky".

What a waste.