Tag: gambling

Categories
College Basketball

Odds and Ends: A true American hero



Who runs a $22 office pool?

Michigan state representative Kim Meltzer wants to decriminalize NCAA tournament pools because “what makes March Madness unique is that all kinds of people and sports fans of all levels fill out their brackets and enjoy the tournament. It’s a crime we consider that a crime, and I want to change it.”

Bravo Kim! Bravo! Any pool that’s $20 or less would be legal. Although nobody ever gets prosecuted over an office pool, it shouldn’t be illegal to throw your money away to the guy who just moved here from Bangladesh and is picking teams based on mascots. Hell, the office pool is probably the only chance sports geeks get a chance to talk to that cute girl in marketing. God Bless America and the bracket!

In other news…

[Sign On San Diego]: Adonal Foyle is now free to make fun of Canadians

[WrestleZone]: When your false teeth come flying out during a match, you might want to stop wrestling

[Nashville City Paper]: Even Pacman Jones knows he’s in a heap of trouble

[The Offside]: Sometimes you just gotta check the ol’ undercarriage

[The Big Lead]: Bill Belichick won’t have to testify for banging Sharon Shenocca

[10,000 Takes]: Yeah but where are the strippers?

And finally, we hope you signed up for March Madness On Demand cause it’s gonna be crazy this Thursday. Here’s a list of the announcer schedules. Sadly, one of the most intriguing Cinderalla matchups (Butler/ODU) has Kevin Harlan on the mic.

Categories
College Basketball

So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance

We’re all degenerate gamblers at heart, so what better time to cut loose and let your inner Pete Rose come out than March Madness. After all, who doesn’t love to place a bet on a Cinderella school? Usually, they’ll get bounced in the first or second round but, hope was given to small schools across the country when the March magic carried George Mason all the way to the Final Four in last year’s tournament. Not too shabby considering that they opened the tourney with 400 to 1 odds.

Here are some of the lines for this year’s tournament, starting with the favorites to win it all.

#1 Seeds: Florida 7/2, Kansas 4/1, North Carolina 5/1, Ohio St. 6/1

#2 Seeds: Georgetown 8/1, UCLA 9/1, Wisconsin 15/1, Memphis 20/1,

Notables: Texas A&M 10/1, Texas 12/1, Maryland 25/1, Pittsburgh 25/1, Butler 35/1, Oregon 35/1, Washington St. 35/1, Arizona 40/1, Louisville 40/1, S. Illinois 40/1,Virginia Tech 45/1, Duke 50/1

Long Shots: Texas Tech 125/1, BYU 150/1, Gonzaga 150/1, Arkansas 200/1, Illinois 200/1, Purdue 200/1, Stanford 200/1

Don’t see any action that you like? Well, your odds are still better than trying to fill out a perfect bracket, 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1, but the payoff isn’t nearly as good.

Links:

[Bodog]: ODDS TO WIN 2007 NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Categories
Golf

Golf and gambling… so happy together



Owww my arm

Whether it’s nassau, skins, wolf or flying camel…wait, scratch that last one… golf is a game that is so much better when there’s a little money at stake. So… welcome to the World Series of Golf.

Here’s how it works. The buy in is $10,000. In each round, a player plays against those in his group of 5 or 6. Each hole starts with an ante. After each golf shot, a player can stand, bet, or fold. The objective is to take all the other players’ money from your group and advance to the next round. Theoretically, you could knock everyone in your group out playing one hole. The final “table” is a group of six playing for $450,000 in prize money. The winner takes home $250,000.

This tourney is open to amateurs only but anyone who wins loses their amateur status so there will be no repeat champions. This rule makes it a little hard to get any kind of momentum as viewers won’t be able to pick favorites and villains year after year. Unless of course the same amateur loses every year and goes kicking and screaming like Phil Helmuth. Hmmmm… that could be an easy way to get famous even if you suck at golf. NBC has signed on to air the tournament.

We’ll be watching for it in May but what we’re really looking forward to is the World Series of Flip Cup. Now, why can’t that be on NBC?

Categories
NBA General

Charles Barkley still doesn’t have a gambling problem


Hey, it’s only a problem if you lose! Barkley said he won about $700,000 in Las Vegas this weekend from blackjack and betting on the Super Bowl. But he also said he lost $2.5M in a six hour period last year. But Barkley still denies he has a problem.


It’s a stupid, bad habit. I have a problem. But the problem is when you can’t afford it. I can afford to gamble. I didn’t kill myself when I lost two and half million dollars… I like to gamble and I’m not going to quit.

Barkley is one of our favorite athletes. He always gives great quotes and isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. So let’s hope that someone he actually respects sits him down and tells him to cut it out. Just because you can afford to lose $2.5M doesn’t mean you should. Perhaps Ron Jaworski should tell him the sad tale of Leonard Tose.

Links:
[SI]: Charles Barkley says he won about $700,000 gambling in Las Vegas
[SC]: Charles Barkley is a big black whale

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Karma rears its beautiful head


OK, this is the last mention of politics for a long long time, we promise. Representative Jim Leach of Iowa (aka “The Man Who Hated Fun”), sponsor of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was voted out of office yesterday. The anti-gambling act was added onto a bill that was supposed to improve port security and signed into law by President Bush recently. Seriously, if we can’t bet on the Raiders to not score a point on Monday Night Football, then what is the point of watching that game? Screw you, Jim Leach.

In other news…

[SignOnSanDiego]: Two students named Sudeep Paul and Anand Durvasula were arrested for breaking into Heinz Field on suspicion of terrorism… turns out they were making a music video.

[NY Post]: Doc Gooden set to leave prison. Maybe he can participate in MLB’s “Take a convict to school day promotion

[Tiger Woods]: Tiger Woods is boring on his blog too

[Basketbawful]: What are Jerry Buss, Snoop Dog, Paris Hilton and Paul Abdul doing together?

[USA Today]: Miami lineman Pata’s death ruled a homicide

[Miami Herald]: Not so fast, Ricky. Miami still owns your ass.

Categories
NFL General

Woman wins $444,186 on a $5 football bet



Our new picks system

A 21-year-old bartender named Sarah Mabee won the Ontario (that’s Canada) Pro Picks Pools lottery game by picking all 13 games correctly last weekend. Mabee knows nothing about the NFL and it was only her second time playing the lottery game.

So basically what this tells you is that no matter the amount of research you do, it doesn’t beat just throwing a dart at the wall or picking the team with the prettier uniforms/hotter cheerleaders/cooler mascot. Or picking the Oakland Raiders over the Arizona Cardinals because it was her grandfather’s favorite team.

Mabee won enough money to quit her job and we’re still trying to figure out how we picked the Cardinals to beat the Raiders. That’s it, from now on, we’re going with the team with the hotter cheerleaders. That means Pittsburgh and Green Bay will lose every game.

Finally, why isn’t a Pro Picks lottery game available in the US? Isn’t it safer for us to go to the store and put this bet down instead of finding the shady fat guy at the end of the bar?

Links:
[Toronto Star]: Bartender’s NFL picks net $444,186 prize

Categories
MLB General

More on the Pete Rose "apology" ball



Pete Rose is sad

Earlier this week, we told you about Pete Rose signing 300 balls to be auctioned off with the inscription “I’m sorry I bet on baseball”. The auction house was set to sell them for $1000 each. But why pay $1000 when you can get it direct from Charlie Hustle himself for only $349 (+ $4.99 S/H)?

And that’s not all! If you act now you can get it personalized with your name. If your name is Bob, they already have a ball ready for you. Now, who wants to be the first to order up one addressed to “God”?

Links:

[Pete Rose.com]: Pete Rose Personalized Autographed Baseball with “I’m Sorry I Bet on Baseball” Inscription

Categories
MLB General

Pete Rose will do anything for money



from baseball-almanac.com

Just like the Black Eyed Peas, Pete Rose will absolutely do anything for money. His latest shameless exploitation of baseball are a bunch of autographed baseballs that have the inscription “I’m sorry I bet on baseball – Pete Rose”.

The balls will be sold by Robert Edwards Auctions at $1000 each. We wonder what Rose is getting for signing 30 balls. But we also have to wonder who are these collectors who are buying up this stuff. If there is no demand for such cheap merchandise then Pete wouldn’t get a dime.

Let’s stop the insanity people. Next thing you know, OJ will be signing footballs with “I’m sorry I killed those people”.

Links:
[MSNBC]: Report: Rose signed balls apologizing for bets

Categories
MLB General

August 24 in Sports History: Pete Rose is banned


In 1989: Pete Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball from then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti for betting on baseball. Although he vehemently denied gambling, Rose still signed off on the ban. Giamatti, who admitted that the decision took an awful toll on his health, died shortly afterwards. Rose, who holds the all-time career hits mark with 4,256, was also declared ineligible for the Hall of Fame. In 2004, he finally admitted to not only betting on baseball, but also on the Reds, the team he was managing at the time. In his book, “My Prison Without Bars,” Rose told current Commissioner Bud Selig that he bet because he “didn’t think he’d get caught.” No player ever declared permanently ineligible has ever been reinstated into baseball.

In 1951: Nobody could pull a PR stunt like St. Louis Browns’ owner Bill Veeck. In a game against the A’s, Veeck held “Grandstand Managers Day“, in which fans made the final decisions for the Browns. Coaches held up placards, and fans would vote yes or no. The 1,100 plus “skippers” apparently made the right ones, as a few of the players they elected to play helped the Browns defeat the A’s 5-3. They also told players when to bunt, steal, and when to change pitchers. www.baseballreliquary.org

Categories
Soccer

We need more things to bet on


Talk about pressuring your kids. A man in England placed 100 pounds at 100/1 that his son would play for the English football team by the time he was 30. Well, that son got to play Wednesday in the second half of a game between England and Greece. That man is now 10,000 pounds richer.

Another man put 20 pounds at 5000/1 that his grandson would become the captain of the England team. For those mathematically challeged, he stands to collect 100,000 pounds if it comes to pass.

As far as we know, there is no such wagering in the United States. And even if there were, what is the point? Making it to the professional level is already like winning the lottery. What’s an extra $10,000 or $100,000 when phenoms are signing $50M contracts out of college?

Instead, we think there are much better things to wager on. For example, how much of a sure thing was it that Kate Hudson would dump her husband (over the hill rockstar Chris Robinson) for Owen Wilson (the hour long buttlicker) after You, Me and Dupree? That could’ve been easy money. If there’s one thing that England has over us, it’s the ability to make basically any bet you want.

Here are some other sure things we’d bet on:

  • Paris Hilton diagnosed with an STD
  • Britney Spears ends up a fat disgusting pig with 5 kids. (almost there…)
  • The Smoking Gun finds a copy of Tiger Woods’ deal with the devil
  • Barry Bonds is proven to have knowingly used steroids
  • A Trailblazer and a Bengal get together to knock over a liquor store
  • and finally… Jessica Biel’s ass will cause a traffic accident

Links:
[Yahoo]: Man bets that son would play for English soccer team