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OAKLAND PARK, Fla (Gambling911.com) - BetOnline has come under a lot of flack for offering betting on this year's Little League World Series (they just offered to stop taking bets on the condition that the Little League players get paid). Now another gambling controversy may be brewing.
Hurricane Dolly has just formed far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Already, prediction market Kalshi is taking bets (they call them "trades") on Dolly (primarily in regard to the first named storm of the season). BetOnline, for the time being, has not posted hurricane odds.
Dolly is of a unique interest as the storm has formed just two days after news of the iconic Dolly Parton's passing on Tuesday. The name was previously designated.
Betting on hurricanes (specially the highest category storm to hit the U.S.) is nothing new. During the highly active 2004 and 2005 seasons here in Florida, Bookmaker.eu had offered hurricane betting odds. Major media outlets, mostly in the Southeast, took notice. The Miami Herald made it their home page story and even The Weather Channel swung by the Gambling911.com Miami Beach office to film roof damage caused by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 for an episode of "Storm Stories".
pictured: Gambling911.com founder Chris Costigan poses for Miami Herald piece on hurricane betting in 2005
Following the 2005 hurricane season, Bookmaker and other offshore gambling websites that began offering bets on Hurricane names and categories caved in to the mounting backlash and opted to cease doing so.
Fast forward to 2026 and prediction markets have thrown caution to the wind (pun intended). Another prediction market (Polymarket) was reportedly even taking bets on wildfires (at least last year), which BetOnline will absolutely NOT take bets on. That is a bridge too far.
Dolly became the 4th named storm in the Atlantic but for now is just a tropical storm. None of the prior three named tropical storms formed to become hurricanes, making this one of the least active hurricane seasons in some time..... for now at least.
As of Thursday morning, Dolly was located between Africa and the Windward Islands.
The National Hurricane Center said it would initiate advisories for Tropical Storm Dolly, previously known as Invest 96L, during its 11 a.m. (EST) advisory.
First the good news, despite an ominous track towards Puerto Rico, the system is expected to enter unfavorable conditions for development on Friday.
Now the bad news, the current track still takes it towards the United States at the moment with plenty of open water for later development.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
