Oil Spill Betting Highlights Environmental Catastrophe?
Ireland's largest bookmaker, Paddy Power.com, is hopeful that their recent offering of Gulf of Mexico oil spill betting will help to highlight the recent catastrophe.
That company was offering odds on what species would be first to become extinct as a result of crude belching from BP PLC's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the New York Times.
Odds are the Kemp's ridley turtle, and endangered species that migrates to the Gulf this time of year, would go first. A $5 bet on the turtle would win $9 if it's listed as extinct at any time because of the spill. Less likely species -- the gulf sturgeon, smalltooth sawfish and elkhorn coral -- have payout rates of 20-to-1.
"We kind of have a very simple philosophy at Paddy Power -- within reason if there is a very newsworthy event that are people are talking about, people should be allowed to back up their opinion with some cash," said Ken Robertson, a company spokesman.
That website was also taking bets on who would replace the current BP CEO.
Bookmaker.com was mentioned in that very same article. Gambling911.com readers might recall that the oldest established North American facing online gambling website had been taking bets on whether the initial "dome" would be able to gather the oil and what percentage. The first concrete "dome" turned into a complete failure.
Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
