Are you a gambling man—or woman? Most of us don’t take a whole lot of chances with our money. In fact, only 15% of people in the world gamble on a regular basis. On the other hand, 85% of us have gambled on something or other in the past year. Bought a lottery ticket, or played some slot machines in a casino. In election years, there’s a lot of bets being placed on who’s going to win. But here in the United States, you can’t bet on Biden or Trump.
Political betting is illegal in this country. That means you’re breaking the law if you even place a bet with your cousin or next door neighbor.. Obviously, there’s lots of people breaking the law. And I’m not sure what the penalty might be if someone reported you to the police for betting on the election.
People from other countries can go online and place all the bets they want to, but we Yanks aren’t supposed to bet on our own elections. Why is that? The theory is that if you bet on a massive longshot, you would be less likely to vote—ensuring that your candidate will lose. Nevertheless, most seasoned politicians follow the sports betting 2020 election odds very closely. And right now, the odds are favoring Biden.
According to Reuter’s World News,
“Bettors on British exchange markets give Democratic challenger Joe Biden a 66% chance of winning the Nov. 3 election, down from 68% before the the debate. Trump’s chances improved to 34% from 32%.
….The odds have narrowed since mid-October, but betting trends on gambling websites still predict a win for Biden. The former vice president has a substantial lead in national opinion polls, although the contest is closer in battleground states likely to decide the race.
…The majority of big-money political betting occurs outside America as betting on politics is illegal in the United States.”
Although we can’t legally place a bet, we can to go online and see the betting odds for the 2020 election.
But seasoned gamblers often bet against the odds . It turns out that as of October 20th, 62% of world gamblers were betting on Trump to win, and only 35% were betting on Biden. Why bet against public opinion?
According to the website Odds Shark. “ One of the most popular sports betting systems is the “contrarian method” of going against whatever side the public is backing,” because “the public can be easily brainwashed by the media, and tends to be wrong more often than not.”
Are the contrarians right or wrong? It remains to be seen.