| |
Gamblers Bet on Hurricane Season
BY KELLI KENNEDY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI -- It's a slow time of year for avid gamblers. Basketball and
hockey playoffs are over. Football is weeks away.
But gambling on what this hurricane season will produce is proving
irresistible.
U.S. casinos don't offer hurricane bets, but that hasn't stopped
gamblers -- a few thousand of whom have placed hurricane wagers with
online casinos based in other countries.
"Betting on baseball gets boring," said Ken Moore, a graphic designer
from Quincy, Mass., who bet $75 on hurricanes.
He'll make about $72.50 if two hurricanes that are a Category 3 or
higher strike the United States this season. He'll make $5 if one
hits. If none hit or three or more hit, he'll lose.
Gamblers have several options for placing bets. One is betting on how
many hurricanes will hit the United States. Another is betting on how
many will hit Florida and which category they will be.
The safest bets offer 2.25 to 1 odds that at least two Category 3
storms will hit the United States, according to odds posted by
BetCRIS.com.
Mickey Richardson, the site's chief executive officer, said he
wondered whether he should continue offering such bets after Hurricane
Katrina. "But our clients who were used to seeing us offer these
events pretty much requested it again," he said.
"We tried to make it in good taste. We stayed as far away as we could
from hurricane alley in the gulf in Louisiana and Mississippi. The
last thing I want to do is profit off of a disaster that happened last
year."
In the 1790s, people in Philadelphia and New York bet on which city
would have more deaths during an outbreak of yellow fever. In
18th-Century London, people would take bets on whether patients being
wheeled into surgery would survive, said David Schwartz, director of
the center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las
Vegas.
"People used to bet on things that involved death a lot more because
people weren't so sensitive about it," he said. "I'm sure people who
were personally affected by a hurricane, who either lost a home or
lost loved ones, probably wouldn't think it's such an amusing thing to
bet on."
ORDER
STOCK SIZE STORM PANELS AND PICK-UP YOUR ORDER IN 2-3 DAYS!
CONTACT US TODAY TO ORDER!
 Use our
Online Storm Panel Estimator Tool
to buy your custom Storm Panels online. Simply enter your window measurements, get a price on your new hurricane shutters,
and make your purchase. It's that easy! Need to know how to
measure
your windows?
How Storm Panels are installed.
|
|
