Express Action Sports

Okay, I used to have an xbox 360 but it already crapped out on me because of the 3rl and the warranty’s already done. I don’t know if i should buy another one or switch to a gaming pc. I have a ps3, a wii, a psp, an nds and a laptop. So please help me decide.

The games I like are sports, FPS and action games like splinter cell or mgs 4.

Here are the Specs of the gaming rig i’m planning to buy:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
MSI G41M4-F G41
1TB Western Digital SATA
4GB DDR3
INNO3D 9600GT PCIE 1gb DDR3 256Bytes

Please justify your answers. Thanks!
Okay, I used to have an xbox 360 but it already crapped out on me because of the 3rl and the warranty’s already done. I don’t know if i should buy another one or switch to a gaming pc. I have a ps3, a wii, a psp, an nds and a laptop. So please help me decide.

The games I like are sports, FPS and action games like splinter cell or mgs 4.

Here are the Specs of the gaming rig i’m planning to buy:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
MSI G41M4-F G41
1TB Western Digital SATA
4GB DDR3
INNO3D 9600GT PCIE 1gb DDR3 256Bytes

Please justify your answers. Thanks!

P.S. To PersonGuy42, I’m planning to get the samsung 20" 2033SW LCD

Ramirez!’s uninformed and incorrect opinion aside…

PCs are better gaming platforms…especially if you know what you’re doing and are careful about how you use the computer. They also last *much* longer.
Since you’re planning to go nVidia for the graphics solution, go with a 285 instead of the modded 8600. You seem to be planning to spend for decently high-end components, but you cheaped-out on the low-end graphics processor (which is about the same quality as those found in the consoles…)

To help you decide…EA has taken all of it’s Sports games off PC and gone strictly console, so, since you have the PS3, you have that covered.
Since you like shooters…shooters are actually *better* on PC – the game itself is more challenging (no "snap-to" aiming like on the consoles), so you actually become more skillful. The forthcoming Crysis 2 is a perfect example…the dev stated that the only way they could actually bring the game to the console was because they limited the graphics by putting it in the concrete jungle of NY…had they left it on the island where it started, the consoles would have never been able to handle it with decent graphics at a playable framerate.

Once you’re used to using the keyboard and mouse, you’ll generally find it more satisfying and easier.

Good Luck!

We were young, i’m 35 she’s 37 & have 2 kids, a 13 yr old daughter & 6 yr old son. I work 2 jobs & coach my 2 kid’s sports teams. I’m always taking them somewhere when I’m not at work, my weeknights & weekends are very busy. The daughter is in advanced classes and on a travel sports team. Unfortunately, my wife isn’t giving us much help. She’s always had problems keeping a job. I can’t even count how many jobs she’s had, I’d say up to 50. She’s always worked, just never made more than 13K a yr. I don’t make a whole lot myself even with the 2 jobs so we’re always just getting by. Up until our son was born, my wife & daughter always had a good relationship. After he was born, it deteriorated. I call it a perfect storm, a mixture of things, that led to this. Wife had always had personality, relationship problems with people before. She’s anti-social. The only people to accept her have been me & her family. I’m aware of post partum, although she has never shown it towards my son. cont…
BUT something has happened to her. She is NOT the same person, her problems have become magnified. She lays around and does no housework and we have to tell her to cook. She’ll say you do it. When she does get a job, she can’t do direct deposit cause she can’t manage a bank acct. It would be negative with overdraft fees even after her check goes in. I ultimately had to take her off our bank acct cause she drained it a few times. When she did have a job that she’d kept for over 6 months, we took her off my insurance & on to hers. She lost that job & now has no ins. I can’t put her back on mine cause it would cost too much. We’re talking from $150/month to $700 just to add her. She’s said how she should & could leave & doesn’t need me (but we need her), but when she complained to me that I don’t let her take care of any of the bills, I gave her the responsibility of paying the phone bill. I gave her instructions, let her go with it. Two months later, our phone was shutoff. cont…
She still blamed me somehow for it. She doesn’t have any friends so the only person she goes to tell is her parents. They’re enablers cause they completely back her up. Her whole family is like that cause the parents are older (elderly) so they don’t want to upset them. I’m the bad guy to them so I can’t even talk to them about this. The worst part is that my daughter is now a teen & she sees what her mother is. I’ve had to get in between them their fights are so bad. I try to support my wife’s side but she says the most inappropriate things. Like “without your mother, you’ll be in the gutter & wind up pregnant”. It’s completely irrational cause my daughter is nothing like that so I wind up protecting & defending my daughter against her. One time I had to call the police because my wife threw an ottoman at her. I don’t want to do that again cause they interviewed me, the kids & investigated the house. But I have to do something. Between me & my daughter, our relationship is strong cont
But it kills me to hear her say she would rather not have a mother. I try to reason with my wife but it blows up into another blame game. She’s “between jobs” again so we have that added stress & the daughter’s sport team season is heating up. I asked her if she wants to quit, but she says no way, it’s the only way she keeps her confidence. We’ve gone to counseling but the counselor seemed afraid to tackle our problem. She saw us about 5 times & then kept putting us off saying that she wasn’t available & that she was having some problems with our insurance. That’s when my wife had insurance, now I’m trying to get just me & my daughter in to one but none are available until late May. I believe my wife has mental issues, her thought process is so irrational & she’s either oblivious all the time or looking for a fight all the time. But she refuses to accept any responsibility. She’s even said “oh so you can take my kids from me?” Not having medical coverage gives her a good excuse cont…
which may also mean why she doesn’t want to go back or keep a job at least. I would love for her to be able to get a career and be the mother my kids deserve, but I’m running on empty. I can’t just force her out can I? She’ll just get custody here in FLA (being a woman-friendly state). She’s never been diagnosed with anything because she’s never seen anybody for it. She doesn’t do drugs. Am I stuck with the old saying “its cheaper to keep’er”? If I thought I had a chance at all I would but I’ve heard some real horror stories & I’m not willing to go through any worse case scenarios at the expense of my kids’ lives. How do I pull my family through these major problems with minimal resources? I’ve prayed about this, seen priests, counselors. I either need a counselor that will see her and help or a lawyer that is dad strong and won’t ask for a lot. Thanks and sorry so long.

You need to consult with a lawyer in your area as soon as possible. Your wife has problems and needs some serious help. You and your kids don’t need her, she needs you. I don’t care what anyone says, I have a teen daughter and I would never say things like that to her. Your daughter is at the age that she needs guidance and not someone to criticize her. You have to do what is right for your children and it does not sound like she is to stable with them. If you called the law when she was throwing things at your daughter then get a copy of that report to help you in court. You can also get both children into a counselor so they can have someone to talk to and be sure to let the counselor know what is going on in your household so they can address those issues. You will be getting your children help and you may even get some evidence for court through the counselor. They will not be able to say what the children say but they can sure recommend where your children need to live. I wish you luck! Neither your children or you deserve this kind of treatment from her.

I need a good camera for my kid’s sports games. Just a small point and shoot. But it needs to be great at action shots, to capture that right moment. I know most point and shoots take a few seconds after you press, to actually capture the image.
Any brand works.
I really just need a good zoom, and good for indoor/outdoor action shots.

Got any ideas/have any preferences? Thanks!

And please, not a dslr! I used to have one, and it was big, clunky, very complicated, and I spent a fortune on lenses, filters, and cards!

This tip is going to sound stupid up front but nearly ALL point and shoot cameras can take decent action shots if you compose your shot.

1) Set whatever you’ve got in whatever it has in way of sports mode (for exposure reasons, has nothing to do with how long it takes to take the picture).
2) Press the shutter down halfway until focus locks in. The camera might beep to tell you it has locked in. LEAVE THE BUTTON PRESSED HALFWAY.
3) Watch your action through your viewfinder or on the screen.
4) When you’re ready to shoot, depress the shutter the rest of the way.

You’re going to be surprised. Yes, it took 10 seconds, but you did 9.8 of that before you wanted to take the picture.

If you don’t have a point and shoot at all, get whatever is on sale that you have memory cards for. Get one that looks pretty. Costco and Sam’s usually have decent prices.

My sports survey shows that betting on the outcome of local and national sporting contests is the number one illegal form of gambling in the United States-illegal off-track race betting is second. This great upsurge in sports betting is due primarily to extensive television sports coverage on all sorts of sporting events and the great team expansion of professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Today about 60 million Americans are wagering approximately $30 billion yearly on all sorts of amateur and professional sporting contests. My New York City sports survey agrees with the one conducted by the Oliver Quayle organization for the city of New York. Both estimates state that New York City”s sports fans bet over $1 billion yearly.

About half, or $15 billion, of the total national sports handle was wagered with friends and acquaintances in bets ranging from a dollar to several. thousand dollars. These private wagers on sports and other events rank in volume as follows: football, baseball, basketball, hockey, boxing, golf and political elections, and such skill contests as bowling, horseshoes, Checkers, Chess, billiards, pool and Teeko.

The remaining $15 billion is wagered each year by countless millions of Americans with thousands of sports bookmakers and hundreds and hundreds of horse bookies. The books retain about 4¢ of each dollar they handle, gross revenue on the $15 billion of $600 million. About 60% of this goes for operational expenses-salaries, gamblers” losses not collected, phone charges (one such bookie is known to spend $10,000 a month on phone calls in order to operate his trans-country sports business) and graft paid to corrupt police officers and politicians. This leaves a net profit of $240 million. One example of how important sports betting in this country has become is a Federal investigation and trial of the operators of a sports office in Terre Haute, Indiana. The government subpoenaed 175 of the country”s big time bettors-a list which included several multimillion¬aires, movie people, hotel owners and other business tycoons. The evidence indicated that some of these bettors wagered as much as $25,000 on a single football game.

SPORTS OFFICES AND BOOKMAKERS

There are now about 4,000 bookmakers in America who handle sports wagers exclusively, most of whom will not take horse-race bets. Two of these, both big ones, are women.
In addition, there are more than 300 sports offices. A sports office is a combine or syndicate of three or more of the top sports bookmakers who have joined together so as to be able to handle the sports betting of the nation”s biggest bettors. As a rule, the smallest bet these offices will accept is $100 on a single contest, the largest, $20,000. But this $20,000 maximum limit is sometimes upped for special customers; and for the Super Bowl and World Series play the sky is the limit.

The day”s handle for one of these offices may run from a low $50,000 to a high of $500,000 or more.
Baseball sports betting accounts for about 40%, or $6 billion of the bookies” yearly sports handle; football, about 45% or $6.75 billion, and basketball, hockey, prizefights and state and national political elections, 15% or $2.25 billion.

The bettors who patronize the big time bookies or sports offices are tens of thousands of people in all walks of life: industrialists, politicians, judges, lawyers, stock brokers and manipulators, oil and movie magnates, as well as Numbers operators, bookmakers, casino operators, racketeers and other easy-money boys.

Most of the betting online involving the big bettor and the bookie or sports office is conducted by phone and courier. The courier, or runner, merely collects from the losers and pays the winners. This is done strictly on a cash basis-"No maps (checks) accepted." If the sports office and the big time bettor are in different states the winner of a big wager (bookie or player) must travel to the loser to collect.

Betting conversations by phone are usually in code, and no names are ever mentioned. The necessary bookkeeping is also coded, numbers representing the names of superstars, teams, etc. These codes are used primarily to make it tough for Federal law-enforcement agencies to get evidence. Formerly, bookies operating within the borders of a single state had no fear of Federal prosecution, but the enactment of the 1951 Federal gambling law requiring a bookie to purchase a $50
license stamp annually and pay 10% of his gross handle as a Federal tax changed that.
The 10% tax is highly unrealistic. As one bookie told me disgusted, "I would go broke in one day if 1 paid the 10% Federal bookie tax. Look what would happen when a player bets me $1,050 to $1,000 on a Pick ”em ball game and he wins. 1 lose $1,000 and must still pay Uncle Sam $105 for accepting the bet. If 1 take a $1,050 baseball bet on each of two opposing teams, I”d earn only $50 on the $2,100 worth of action, and would have to pay Uncle Sam $210. That would put me out of business in short order-so 1 don’t buy the stamp. 1 just pay Uncle Sam what he rightfully has coming when 1 file my income tax."

The nation”s number one sports betting online contest is the annual Super Bowl. The runner-up is, of course, the World Series, with the Kentucky Derby running third. Approximately $600 million changes hands on the Super Bowl game and about $500 million is wagered on the outcome of the World Series plus the single games. The largest single bet to this author”s knowledge was made by a Midwestern betting combine with a number of western sports offices. They wagered $825,000 on the outcome of a World Series game. A $200,000 wager is the largest single wager known on a Super Bowl game.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BETTING SCALPERS

Many bookies who handle baseball action believe that scalpers (bettors who wager on two opposing teams in order to minimize their losses through some mysterious mathematical formula unknown to the bookies) have a sure-fire winning proposition when they scalp a World Series. As one New Jersey bookie told me, "Scarne, these baseball scalpers bet big on the Series favorite, then turn around and bet the underdog in each single game. They are sure to win money. How they do it 1 don”t know, but, believe me, they do it." This is like the old joke about the woman who thinks the department store loses money on every item it sells, but makes millions yearly because it sells so many thousands of each item.

This misconception about scalpers arose years ago when a sports office considered its price maker, or handicapper, not only a baseball whiz and a mathematical genius but a prophet to boot. They would quote a price and accept bets weeks before game time not only on the outcome of the Series, but also on each of the seven scheduled games. With this betting setup a sports scalper with a fair knowledge of simple arithmetic would seek a sports line on the World Series and the individual games from as many bookies and sports offices as possible.

He would then select the best price on the outcome of the Series and the best price on each of the individual games. This could involve selecting as many as eight prices each from a different bookie or sports office. By comparing the World Series price with the combined price line of the individual games, he could easily determine if the difference resulted in a minus or plus expectation. If it was minus he forgot the matter. If plus, he would bet his money with the different bookies, laying the shortest price on the Series favorite and taking the longest odds on the underdog in the individual games. This would guarantee him a profit, no matter what happened.

But the scalper can”t do this today because he can”t get a bet down on any single game until the day of that game; bookies only quote prices day by day on World Series games. The only sure thing about scalping the Series today is that the scalper is paying the bookie a greater profit because he is making a greater number of bets.

viru
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/betting-on-sports-events-134439.html