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Since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying 227 passengers mysteriously went missing almost a week ago today, online bookmakers have so far shied away from offering odds on this event. The more riveting this story becomes, the less some bookmakers may be able to resist.
Typically bookmakers stay clear of offering odds on anything associated with tragedy and, in the case of Flight 370, it is presumed some 227 individuals may have perished.
The irony in all of this is that odds have played a major role in this story on a number of fronts and, being that this story has garnered worldwide attention, bookmakers could be itching to pull the trigger.
Over/Under odds on how much longer it will take to find Malaysia Airlines 370 and the Where the plane is ultimately found may on the surface appear to be a harmless wager option.
The How Flight 370 met its demise or whether the plane is found intact or broken apart gets into more morbid territory that bookies will be less inclined to tread upon.
Regardless, the event itself is still tragic barring some type of hostage scenario, and even that isn’t exactly reassuring. The repercussions of taking bets tied to Flight 370 are bound to be significant.
“Offering odds on something like this is out of the question regardless of the demand that we suspect is out there,” one bookmaker, who declined to be identified, tells Gambling911.com. “In the end, you (as the bookmaker) are profiting off of a tragedy”.
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power last week learned the hard way why it’s not always prudent to take bets tied to tragedies.
That company not only offered odds on the outcome of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, they also featured odds in conjunction with the Oscars ceremony where Pistorius was featured as an Academy Awards statuette proclaiming “Its Oscar Time”.
Even more tasteless perhaps, the ad asked in regard to the paraplegic runner being found Not Guilty: “Will He Walk?”
As a result of this campaign, more than 5000 complaints were filed with the UK Advertising Standards Authority. Mounting pressure from the betting community ultimately forced Paddy Power to stop accepting bets on the Pistorius trial.
Paddy may have underestimated the public sentiment regarding a death that occurred over a year ago.
Pistorius is charged in the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He claims to have accidentally shot Steenkamp through a bathroom door, mistaking her for an intruder.
A petition was also begun on Change.org demanding that Paddy stop taking bets on the murder trial and to donate any profits so far to a women’s charity dedicated to preventing domestic abuse.
“Paddy Power are putting all survivors and the families of those who died through even more pain and anguish and they must stop,” the petition claims.
Prior to the Paddy Power move, legitimate bookmakers have long followed a policy of reframing from offering bets on murder trials and death pools.
Paddy Power may have done a favor for other online gambling sites and even themselves with the Pistorius betting flap by demonstrating the public’s difficulty in stomaching wagering on these types of tragic events and providing a glimmer of the ultimate backlash that will likely follow.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
