Rachel has been working out great and should be a solid bet at the New Orleans Ladies. Her trainer said she has been working out great and is ready for this race. Direct quotes from Rachel Alexanders trainer were,

“went beautiful … did very well, looked good.”

So are you new to Horse racing? Find some of our favorite horse betting sites and more information about horse racing right here. You should know that Rachel Alexander has been a force in ladies horse racing. She was named the 2009 Horse of the Year and was alos voted one of the top 3 year old filly’s ever. You can bet with confidence on Rachel Alexander this Saturday. We don’t think there is another horse worth wagering much on in the New Orleans Ladies race but feel free to have your pick at the underdogs. Rachel is the safe pick and bet in our mind. But the real showdown comes in April between Rachel and Zenyatta. Can Rachel Alexander hand Zenyatta her first loss? We’ll have a preview of that race as it gets closer to April 9th. For now, the Bet365 betting lines are available for this weekends race so take a look and get your bets in soon.

Big East: The Big East conference tournament is underway. The three powerhouse teams such as Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Villanova already have secured very high seeds in the tournament. Now they are battling it out to see who can get the #1 or #2 ranking in the big dance. Teams like Notre Dame and Marquette are playing for their tournament lives. They need to have a decent showing in the conference tourney to even have a shot at making the March Madness tournament.

So who do we think will win it all? Go with Syracuse. They are just too tough of a team and they are gunning for that overall #1 seed in next weeks tournament. Villanova has an outside chance to win this tournament as well. Their guard play can allow them to hang with Syracuse. Pittsburgh isn’t deep enough in my opinion. A real darkhorse would be West Virginia. They have secured a tourney birth but could really improve their rank with a conference championship.

Games for the Big East Tournament run all day long this entire week and weekend. A few of our favorite books to bet on the Big East tournament are BetUS and Bodog Sportsbook. BetUS seems to offer the best lines and has some of the quickest payouts in the industry. Sign up at BetUS today and get your bankroll going before the true March Madness begins.

Dough Struyk, the representative of the state, is a staunch advocate of regulating, controlling, and licensing online poker in Iowa with the purpose of extracting economic benefits for the state. Since Iowa has a large number of online poker players, the politician feels that regulating online poker can greatly add to the revenue of the state.

According to Stryuk’s plan, residents of Iowa would be permitted to deposit money in poker rooms run by the state. At present, Iowa has 17 casinos regulated by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. The commission hopes that it can earn huge profits by introducing intrastate poker in Iowa.

Poker players in Iowa are delighted about the idea of introducing intrastate poker. This means that they can play their favorite card game legally. Poker enthusiasts can safely play all variants of poker, from Omaha to Texas Hold’em, online.

Since Iowa is a pioneer in the online gaming industry, the intrastate poker bill could be easily passed here. The first casino in Iowa was established in 1991, at a time when the other US states were still engaged in heated debates over the issue. Iowa was also the first state in the United States to give a legal status to riverboat gambling.

Olympic Casino was the first online licensed casino established in Estonia. It is legally entitled to offer its gaming services to citizens of Estonia. Since it is the only gaming site to hold a license to accept Estonian players, it supports the Estonian government’s plan to take action against unlicensed casinos that continue to accept Estonian players.

Nobody knows how the Estonian Tax and Customs Board plans to sort out this issue with gaming companies that operate outside Estonia. Some surmise that the government might censor Internet usage by making local ISPs deny access to domains of offshore online gaming operators.

Gaming operators are now wondering about their future in Estonia. A number of them have invested considerable sums of money on advertising their services in Estonia. They will suffer severe financial losses if the Estonian government denies access to offshore gaming sites.

Many feel that the ideal solution to this issue would be to permit foreign gaming operators to offer services to Estonian gamblers and introduce better offers at licensed casinos within Estonia in a bid to encourage Estonian gamblers to use gaming services within their own country.

According to the Mintel report, only 21 percent of US adults visited land-based casinos during the previous year, which is a significant drop from the 35 percent that used to flood the land-based casinos before the advent of online gaming.

A senior market analyst at Mintel says that gambling enthusiasts shifted their preferences to online casinos gradually, which definitely rules out the suggestion that the recession is responsible for the decline in the number of customers at land-based casinos. He added that land-based casinos are losing their popularity because technology has brought high-quality entertainment such as Internet gaming, HDTV, and gaming consoles right into the homes of customers.

During the previous year, Indian Casinos enjoyed 3 percent more attendance than Las Vegas casinos. The only silver lining on the cloud is that more than half the people who frequented land-based casinos seemed to lose half their gambling funds.

Mintel also says that 12 percent US adults visited online casinos during the last year, the number of male gamblers being more than that of female gamblers. While women visited online casinos only once a year, men visited them at least 5 times a year.

Although the recession has posed a challenge for online casinos also, their easy accessibility gives them a definite edge over land-based casinos.

According to the South African branch of the National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP), the South African online gaming is a R800 million industry. Moreover, the industry continues to grow and flourish in the country.

Online gaming software developing companies have invested a lot of money in the latest technology with the purpose of introducing the most sophisticated casino games to mobile phone gamblers. Recently, Playtech announced that it has developed brand new applications that cater to the requirements of mobile gamblers.

In spite of the rising popularity of online gaming in South Africa, the gaming industry in South Africa is cautious. The lawmakers of South Africa are currently viewing online gaming activities critically and debating whether on not to regularize and legalize online gaming in South Africa.

Currently, South African gaming laws are not clear with regard to online gaming. South Africa, therefore, need to set new gaming laws in order to clarify the situation. Inadequate legislation and loose enforcement of existing laws has made it easier for online gaming companies to offer their services to online gambling enthusiasts in South Africa.

The company reported a $26.5 million loss during 2009. In contrast, the company had netted a profit of $66 in 2008. The company had made an agreement with the US government with regard to an alleged violation of US gaming laws, as a result of which it had to pay the US government a fine of $105 million. PartyGaming paid $15 million of this fine in 2009.

PartyGaming has been facing stiff competition from rival online gaming companies that offer their services in the US in spite of the fact that online gaming has been illegal in US since 2006.

Sites such as Party Poker, Party Casino, and Party Bets also come under the PartyGaming umbrella. PartyGaming had purchased World Poker Tour and CashCade, the online bingo company, last year.

Chief Executive of PartyGaming Jim Ryan admitted that the company was facing a tough time. Simultaneously, he said that the company was considering mergers and possibilities of acquisition. He said that PartyGaming was discussing various opportunities with other parties.

PartyGaming is apparently eager to boost its online sports betting presence and is conducting meetings with various partners regarding this issue. Jim Ryan also said that there is every possibility of the US government relaxing its gaming laws with regard to online poker gaming.

Our Betting Picks

Betting on the PGA is a lot of fun but also takes some luck. Let’s take a look at some of our top betting picks from this weekends Honda Classic.

• Lee Westwood: Lee is currently ranked as the number 4 golfer in the world. He is currently sitting at 18/1 to win this tournament which is pretty good value. Being Westwood is the highest ranked golfer entered into this tournament, we like his chances to be towards the top and compete for the Honda Classic title.
• Robert Allenby: Allenby is a fairly solid bet as well. His odds at Bodog are set as 16/1. Allenby has been a model for consistency over the last several events, making the cut in his last 5 and has 3 top 10 finishes. This could be his event to crack the top 3 and possibly win the event.
• Rory McIlroy: McIlroy seems to be everyones favorite to win the Honda Classic. He sits at 16/1 odds to win the tournament. He is #9 in the world but hasn’t won a tournament in America yet. We are a little skeptical of Rory winning this event but if you want to go along with the public, take a shot on McIlroy at 16/1.

Where to Bet on the Honda Classic

There are several sports betting websites that will let you place bets on the Honda Class. Probably our favorite of all for betting on golf is Bodog Sportsbook. They offer very competitive lines when betting on different PGA Tour events. Take a look at our detailed review of Bodog and get started now betting on the Honda Classic.

With baseball games starting up that means one thing for most of you – baseball betting is here. That’s right. You can bet on Spring Training baseball. Among some of the best baseball betting sites that offer lines on the spring training games are Bodog and BetUS. Nearly all sportsbooks that provide lines for regular season baseball will have lines for the preseason games as well. There are some extra limits in place that limit the amount you can bet on preseason baseball but the limits should still be high enough to give you some action. Baseball is mostly popular in the United States but has started to get growing interest in other areas of the world as well. US betting sites love this time of year because not only can they start taking wagers on baseball games but they have March Madness betting right around the corner.

Betting on preseason baseball is very difficult as there are so many unknowns in these games. Teams usually experiment with new lineups and starting pitchers typically don’t pitch very long. It’s difficult to know what the weather will be like and we know very little about the conditions at the stadium. So if you aren’t into Spring Training baseball just be excited that April is almost here and the regular season games are right around the corner.

Bet on Spring Training Baseball at BetUS Today

The credit card company has announced that it would step out of the US online gaming industry, a move that prevents US online gamblers from using their Visa credit cards to fund their online gaming accounts. The gaming industry is still not sure about the effects of this decision on Canadian gamblers.

Neither of the two credit card companies have stated reasons for their sudden decisions. However, the common opinion is that both companies are acting in obedience to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which is soon to be implemented.

The future implementation of the UIGEA, which will make online gaming illegal in the US, has led to a number of international companies stepping out of the US gambling market. However, if the law is not implemented, the two major companies might regret their hasty retreat from a $12 billion industry.

Since Visa and MasterCard have stepped out of the online gaming scenario, US online gamblers can no longer use their credit cards to fund their accounts. This development could greatly benefit eWallets because, with Visa and MasterCard out of the US online gaming scenario, gamblers are left with no other payment option. Since most eWallets function along the same lines as PayPal, they give players an ideal payment processing solution till the UIEGA is implemented.