MetaFilter posts tagged with betting

George Julius' Mechanical Totalisator

Fiasco da Gama — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:41:29 -0800

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.

That single-serving website sure is sweet

Asparagirl — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:20:15 -0800

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.

Presidential Betting Market Acting a Little Oddly

WCityMike — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:37:37 -0800

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." "So?" you say. "Meh." But adding a little curiousity to this matter, "this [rogue] trader is not only selling Obama contracts and buying McCain contracts ... they also seem to be buying Hillary Clinton contracts. [...] So someone is betting on some sort of disqualifying event happening to Obama." Is this a zomgzomgzomgCONSPIRACY?! No. But it is a intriguing little side wrinkle. And I imagine you didn't know that "[b]etween the Obama and McCain contracts, there appears to be about $400,000 in contracts changing hands every day."¹ And, as Silver points out, "I don't think this is any cause for alarm ... if Joe Biden contracts were being bought up as part of this scheme, that might be more concerning, but they aren't. Still, if I were the FBI, I would probably want to know the identity of this trader." ¹"Contract" being analogous in this case to "bet."

He took his mother to the ceremony...you know what that means

allen.spaulding — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 05:08:00 -0800

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?

Osama bin Lotto

homunculus — Mon, 10 May 2004 17:12:38 -0800

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.

TheTerrorMarket

srboisvert — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 04:03:32 -0800

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.

Extraordinarilly profound and important

Ignatius J. Reilly — Thu, 22 May 2003 21:53:45 -0800

The Sports Book of Virtues (not) By Bill Bennett. "I believe in a strong family unit and doubling down on 11."

Why — Thu, 13 Jun 2002 12:59:32 -0800

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."

Voyageman — Wed, 29 May 2002 12:18:59 -0800

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?

MiguelCardoso — Wed, 20 Mar 2002 07:52:31 -0800

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...)