Sir George Julius's Automatic Totalisator, first used by the public in New Zealand, and quickly taken up by racetracks throughout Australasia and North America (warning hideous HTML), automates parimutuel betting.
posted by Fiasco da Gama on Aug 26, 2009 - 4 comments

Need to settle a dispute with a friend, but don't want to flip a coin? Try Diabetting, a new way to settle decisions using the most-recently-updated blood sugar readings of a Type I diabetic web developer.
posted by Asparagirl on May 13, 2009 - 32 comments

Nate Silver, the proprietor of the fantastic electoral projection site FiveThirtyEight.com, notices that the presidential betting market on Intrade is behaving very oddly: "[S]ome individual trader or some small group of traders are shorting all the Obama contacts in bulk and resetting the entire market. The markets then organically climb back upward until the rogue trader strikes again six or eight hours later." [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Sep 24, 2008 - 39 comments

It's celebrity award season. I'm curious as to who people think will get the next few. Personally, I'm going to go with Jagdish Bhagwati for Economics and Oxfam for Peace. I've got no clue on literature. Place your bets. Who are your hot picks?
posted by allen.spaulding on Oct 4, 2005 - 7 comments

Osama bin Lotto [Flash.] What's your bet on when bin Laden will be captured? Some oddsmakers suggest the last ten days of July. I think the winner should get 22 pounds of tinfoil, and the runner-up some cologne.
posted by homunculus on May 10, 2004 - 11 comments

Trading on the Future of Terror [LA Times] The war on terrorism has come to this: The Pentagon is setting up a commodity-style market to use real investors — putting down real money — to help its generals predict terrorist attacks, coups d'etat and other turmoil in the Middle East. You can sign up here to bet on suicide bombings.
posted by srboisvert on Jul 29, 2003 - 7 comments

The Sports Book of Virtues (not) By Bill Bennett. "I believe in a strong family unit and doubling down on 11."
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly on May 22, 2003 - 5 comments

Bookies taking bets on the location of the next suicide attack against Israel. "Betting on Eilat, a Red Sea resort that has not seen any violence during the past 21 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, is a long shot at 17-1, while often-hit Jerusalem was given odds of 1.5-1."
posted by Why on Jun 13, 2002 - 4 comments

World-wide obsession I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted by Voyageman on May 29, 2002 - 11 comments

Pick Your Winners For The Oscars: UK-based Blue Square gives you the odds. So how would you bet a virtual $100? And how much would you stand to win?(That is, if you could do the maths...)
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 20, 2002 - 9 comments