Gasoline to hit $3 a gallon: wanna make a bet?

Reuters ^ | Fri Aug 5, 2005 1:53 PM ET | Richard Valdmanis

[newgeezer]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The largest sports betting site on the Internet expanded Friday into the energy arena, offering gamblers a chance to bet on soaring U.S. retail gasoline prices.

"Record gasoline prices are affecting everyone, so why not let people bet on it?" said PinnacleSports.com spokesman Kyle Fratini. "We've been thinking about this for months."

The online betting site, which normally focuses on mainstream sports like football, basketball and soccer, is giving gamblers a chance to bet on whether gasoline will reach $3.00 a gallon in New York or Los Angeles by the end of the year, with 30 to 1 odds.

On Friday, average gasoline prices in Los Angeles were a lofty $2.616 a gallon, up more than 20 percent from last year and among the highest in the nation, according to the AAA's daily survey.

AAA's survey will be used by PinnacleSports.com as the benchmark for its bets.

Nationwide, gasoline prices are zipping along just over $2.30 a gallon, within 2 cents of the record peak hit July 14, as oil refiners are forced to pay up for record world crude oil prices of over $60 a barrel.

Also up for wager: Will the average price of gas in the United States reach $2.35 per gallon by Labor Day? Will the average price of gas in the U.S. reach $2.40 per gallon by the end of the year?

Fratini said maximum bets on gasoline will be around $500, though the site allows for bets in the thousands of dollars for sports like football.

[absolootezer0]

just like everyone said that they'd quit smoking at $3.00/ pack (no, $3.25.. ok, $3.50.. maybe at $4.00... definately at $5.00 ...)

[Glenn]

if they had not been politically restrained from normal market increases.

Any chance you can back this statement up with facts?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

We may have to consider doing that pretty soon. If that fails, just freeze the price....a solution I don't like, but we can't afford for the economy to go south.

It could go south anyway, depending on how often commerce is hampered by gasoline shortages resulting from price controls.

[Hoboto]

The typical oversized SUV driver in my area is a 25-45 y.o. woman about 5'4" whose main priority while driving seems to be talking on her cell phone. Once in a while, if I'm lucky, I may actually see a passenger or two in the vehicle.

That's typically what I see. I tend to avoid them on the freeway.

[KevinDavis]

I'm planning on getting a midsize SUV. Supply and Demand working..

[Hatteras]

On Thursday morning, I bought gas at a Sheetz station just on the Virginia side of the Nice Bridge (Potomac River) on Rt. 301 for 2.09/gal. I passed back through there on Sunday afternoon and it was at 2.19/gal. Dang, now my cheap gas isn't even cheap anymore... (But it does stay between 15 and 25 cents cheaper than most stations between Maryland and NC)

[jec41]

but it can work this time, if managed correctly. release oil from the SPR at $42 and sign a contract with the new iraqi government to replace it - they have new fields coming on line.

Iraq is producing ~2 million barrels a day. Nearly 1 million of that goes to Iran in which they signed a contract last week to trade crude for refined oil. We are already buying their excess. Less than a million barrels a day. They are in negotiations with several companies at the moment to develop new fields. The contracts appear to be going to France. At any rate they are trying to get production up to 3-4 million barrels a day in the next 5 years and have said it will be used for their own needs. At one time Iraq produced 5-6 million barrels a day but it is doubtful that they will ever reach this peak again. Overall OPEC countries appear to have peaked in production just as we did in the 70's.

[LPM1888]

BS, the price is up on speculation of future shortages, if ANWR is passed by the Senate the price of oil will drop overnight, the speculators will get creamed in the futures market.

By the time ANWR comes on line, seven to ten years from now, the demand for oil will have driven the price far higher than today.

ANWR will at most slow the rate of increase in prices for a few years. The price of oil will continue to rise until more reliable and predictable alternative fuel sources become widely available.

[pageonetoo]

We can blame Clinton for this mess when he sent Richardson to the Saudis and negoated price for oild.

The home of Bubba's liberry, bought and paid for by Saudi businessmen, and their friends...

I wonder how many cases of Bill's and/or Hillary's books are in the basement of the Saudi Royal family?...

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 1:47 p.m. EST

Saudis, Arabs Bankrolled Clinton Library

The names of most of the 113,000 donors to Bill Clinton's presidential library remain a closely guarded secret, but a new report claims that the facility was heavily funded by the Saudi royal family and other wealthy Arabs. According to Monday's New York Sun, the $165 million complex was funded in part by gifts of $1 million or more each from the Saudi royals and three Saudi businessmen... (more at Newsmax)

[TheSpottedOwl]

I don't use words like "conpiracy" or "Big Oil"...I let the tinfoil hat wearing lefties do that. I would point out that the oil companies are having record breaking profits so you tell me, is just POSSIBLE that there MIGHT be a LITTLE gouging going on?

Just a little? Speaking of back door deals, why haven't there been more refineries built here? Well besides the incessant yapping of the Green Peace and PETA crowd...

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Refinery capacity is the biggest problem (IMHO). We just don't have enough refineries, and no one wants one in their backyard -yet.

As I recall, the EPA has cleared the way for construction to start next year on a new $2.5 bil refinery in Arizona along I-8, in east Yuma County.

[LPM1888]

Eventually, I think the president may have to freeze gas prices if he doesn't want the economy to tank. I don't like freezing prices, but if you have to do it, you have to do it.

Jimmy Carruh tried that. It worked out really really well. Good luck.

Actually it was Nixon who used price freezes.

[John Lenin]

The price of oil will continue to rise until more reliable and predictable alternative fuel sources become widely available.

No kidding, but until we have an alternative it is brain dead to protect frozen tundra. Stop being a useful idiot for the oil companies, the end result from enviro-whackoism is the highest prices for energy ever. We are talking about an area no one in their right mind would want to visit or live in. Yes, you are being used by big oil and are just too dumb to realize it.

[superloser]

At $60/bbl, oil costs around 18c per pint.

Name another commercially available liquid you can get at that price. You pay more for Coca-Cola and bottled water!

[pageonetoo]

I cannot imagince what it costs to fill an SUV or a full-size pick-up.

I drove my 77 Benz V-8 powered 450SEL (12-14mpg)yesterday, and filled the almost empty tank. I had forgotten about that tank's capacity, and not paying attention, at $2.279, I handed over a $50, and a $20, and got a Coke, and sandwich with the change!

A friend has a 4WD Ford F350 Dually, and gets about 7-8 mpg. They haul their horses with it, and when she filled the twin tanks last week, at $2.199, it cost her almost a hundred bucks!

I can afford the fill-up, but I have started driving my Volvo wagon more (28mpg), and leaving the Explorer (18mpg) for when I need 4WD.

My wife keeps her 300ZX in the wind, and just keeps it pumping! She wants an older 280SL, and I am looking at whether I can save on gas expense, with it. We drive all of our cars, but not as much, these days!

[rwfromkansas]

I will concede the point on gas price controls not being a good idea.

Not being alive in the 70s, I just do not have a memory of how the price controls hurt supply, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

Why would a gas producer want to produce enough gasoline when they would be hurt by the price being too low? The supply and demand curve would indicate that to reach market equilibrium and make a profit, they would have to severely limit the supply for there to be enough demand to make it profitable. At least that is what I can vaguely remember from econ a couple years ago...hopefully I am not messing it up.

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

The typical oversized SUV driver in my area is a 25-45 y.o. woman about 5'4" whose main priority while driving seems to be talking on her cell phone.

What a relief. I thought I was the only one seeing that!

[jec41]

Not being alive in the 70s, I do not know the effect they caused.

But, I will back down and defer to those who know better and say prize freezes would be a bad idea.

For a long time we were a exporter of oil and sold world wide. When US production peaked demand exceeded supply and prices started to increase like now and finally there were shortages. Then we had price controls where you could only buy on certain day depending on whether your tag ended in a even or odd number. You were limited to 10 gals. Most people that worked paid people to sit in the gas lines so they could get their share. Sometimes all day. The shortage was not relieved until OPEC agreed to supply us. Now they are peaking.

[Red Boots]

HOw do you figure that freezing the price will solve the problem ?

What I seem to recal from Econ 101 was that freezing prices will do nothing to alievate the problem, but actually exacerbate it. It would limit supply, and cause prices to rise even higher than they already are. It would cause the ecomony to tank, not save it from tanking.

Which brings another point: despite higher gas prices, is the economy tanking ? No- it's growing right along at a pretty good clip; and it will continue to do so as gas prices flucuate, with supply modulating demand and vise-versa; unless some politicans start fiddling with it.

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

But LA and ALL of the rest of CA deserves paying those prices for energy look what THEY keep electing to DC and Sacramento.

H.L. Mencken observed, “The American people get the government they deserve, good and hard.”