Quickies

Last week, Delaware governor Jack Markell signed legislation legalizing sports betting in Delaware. Now, it's up to the Delaware Supreme Court to work through the myriad of legal issues to determine exactly how the sports betting system will work in the state. Meanwhile, both the NFL and NCAA are unhappy and, as mentioned in a previous post, the NCAA is threatening to prohibit all colleges located in Delaware from hosting any NCAA playoff/tournament games. The latest on the situation is covered in detail in this Philadelphia Inquirer piece.

For a while Saturday, I thought I'd post my official Preakness preview and prediction. But, after providing you readers with some poor picks based on sound handicapping for the Kentucky Derby, I thought better of it. And, it's a good thing I did. My advice was going to be "don't make the sucker bet by putting your money on Rachel Alexandra." From what I've read, the close finish between Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird has temporarily piqued America's interest in the Sport of Kings. Unfortunately, in Maryland, the lack purse money because of a lack of slot machines has damaged the overall racing scene. And, the ban on taking your own booze into the infield at Pimlico caused a substantial drop in attendance at this year's Preakness. This article from Saturday's Washington Post and this one from Sunday examine the two issues. In this column, Andrew Beyer proposes his solution to the Maryland's racing industry woes.

I wanted to find one good gambling song on Youtube to make this an all gambling Quickies post. But, I couldn't find a performance clip of any of the songs I was thinking of, Merle Haggard's "Kentucky Gambler", "Blackjack" by Albert Collins, or Mike Ness' version of "Gamblin' Man". Unfortunately, my search on "Gamblin' Man" found this awful, and I mean really awful, clip of a Hager Brothers appearance on Hee Haw.