Back in the 80's I was a greyhound adopter and lover,a race fan-bettor,racer owner and even track employee for a time.Actually,I will be an adopter all my life.I was just entering my 20's in the 80's and was pretty green and naive as to how people could be so heartless and cruel and such.This was the era of greyhound racing where there was virtually no attempt for trainersor the tracks to find homes for washed up racers.The industry thrived at this time because there was no casino competition or outcry from people that the dogs were being killed when they washed out.Then comes the 90's and 2000's and the tracks cleaned up their act and make wonderful attempts to place ex racers in homes and the animal rights groups are constantly trying to get racing banned.The tracks spend tons of money on helping the ex racers where as in the 80's they spent nothing and that's when they were making lots of dough. It's so politically incorrect these days to say that you went to the greyhound races to have a good time and bet on the dogs.Then greyhound racing was never known to bring out the classiest segment of society out to the races and now that slots are all over,the lower class element in society will play them over betting on the dogs.Grant you that many greyhound tracks have slots and that's what pays for alot of the racing purses.
I look at alot of racing results-payout tables and you would have never seen such eratic payouts as you see today because of small handles.In the 80's huge exotic bets just went along with a somewhat longshot or two finishing in the money.Now you will get dogs that pay $46 to win and $20 to place and the trifecta will pay $50.A couple people can bet the odds down on stupid $2 hunch bets.You no longer can be a serious bettor or have fun thinking you might make serious money betting on greyhounds.
I look at alot of racing results-payout tables and you would have never seen such eratic payouts as you see today because of small handles.In the 80's huge exotic bets just went along with a somewhat longshot or two finishing in the money.Now you will get dogs that pay $46 to win and $20 to place and the trifecta will pay $50.A couple people can bet the odds down on stupid $2 hunch bets.You no longer can be a serious bettor or have fun thinking you might make serious money betting on greyhounds.