Online Betting Has Gone Off the Deep End
As a young boy growing up in East London, Paul Krishnamurty and his friends would bet on pretty much everything: what song would come on the radio next, what show would be on TV that night, which of the two people walking ahead of them would reach the top of the hill first. These wagers were, of course, informal. U.K. bookmakers at the time would offer the odd novelty bet—will it be a white Christmas? Will the royal baby be a boy or a girl?—but mostly they stuck with the standard fare: football, cricket, snooker.
Some 40 years later, the bookies have finally caught up. These days, you can bet on pretty much anything. and COVID and gas . You can bet on whether the government will and whether a natural disaster will San Francisco and whether will win Best Adapted Screenplay. You can bet on the 2024 Republican vice-presidential and the next . You can bet on which celebrity will start an (money’s on Kim Kardashian) and which will be first if aliens attack (money’s on Elon Musk). You can bet on whether McDonald’s will, , restore to its menu. For some reason, you can even bet on the . “We were way ahead of the game on this,” Krishnamurty, now a gambling writer and consultant for two overseas betting sites, BetOnline and Betfair, told me.
