Posted on 08/08/2005 8:20:52 AM PDT by 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.
I'm in Austin myself, so I'm familiar with the area prices. You need to either fill up at Costco, which I have found is among the lower prices on a pretty consistent basis (filled up this morning in fact with unleaded 87 octane at $2.169/gal), or check GasBuddy for the lowest reported prices in your zip code.
There are some Freepers around who regularly work the futures markets. If you are so certain gasoline will go up to a certain price, you might want to start a vanity thread asking how to go about purchasing a futures call option on unleaded gasoline. If you are right, you could make back in profits on selling the option way more than you would pay in gas. A word of warning however: only use "mad money" on a futures option, because most of these options expire worthless.
Myself, I staked out some equities positions on energy concerns a couple years ago, and I'm pretty happy with the dividends they have paid to date, enough to not worry overmuch about the price of gas.
I could see it going higher than 3....how about we get the lawmakers to shave off some of those taxes....we could decrease the price by at least a buck.
we don't need to empty the SPR, just release some oil from it. that oil will displace some market contracts, causing a price decline (more then $1-$2, the market moves $1-$2 on a whim) that will take out some speculative stop positions. we are only trying to force some external event to cause the speculators to exit the market, this plan isn't going to take oil down to $30, that's not the idea.
After scrolling through all the replies to this thread, your two comments seem the most irrational. Especially zen's about "ALL" of CA.
You don't live here, you just felt obliged to through out the obligatory random flaming turd in a sack comment about California. Most FReepers have learned that we here in CA will call you on stupid, asinine, utterly stupid and contemptous remarks about our state.
So my advice to you would be to put a little more thought into your posts before you start a flame war. Show some reason and rationale and folks might think about taking you seriously.
SZ
The more I think about it, the more I agree price controls would hurt.
Because by decreasing supply, you cause more of a crunch, which although not explicitly clear on the curve, will lead to price gouging etc.
If it doesn't cause price gouging, it will be much less of an incentive for businesses to get the gas to the stations as soon as they can, hurting consumers more than the high prices.
Milwaukee requires special formulation. Dont know where you live but you may have to drive to Jefferson Cty to get cheaper gas.
one idea, which freepers scoff at, would be for Bush to use the bully pulpit to encourage conservation. not that this is a long term solution mind you, but its about all that is available short term. ask american companies to allow workers who can telecommute, to do so at least one day per week. if we could take a 20% reduction in gasoline usage by eliminating one commute per week for a large number of workers, we could make a noticeable drop in gasoline usage very quickly.
I won't be satisfied until it is $721,192,584,304,696,838,502,385,329.99 per little tiny drop on the end of a microscopic needle.
Can't happen soon enough.
If we are out that way we will fill up, but it makes no sense to drive 70 miles round trip to save a few cents per gallon.
I don't object to that; of course rising prices should be encouraging it anyway. But I can see the Democratic response: "Bush admits failure of energy policy; tells nation's poor they don't deserve to drive".
The same reason they haven't done that for the last 50 years.
Got thin skin huh!
but the rising prices aren't, demand for gasoline is still rising - there is an inelastic point, combined with US population growth, usage is going up.
and its not the poor that would be telecommuting - it would be knoweldge workers, people who work on their PCs all day, and could do that from home.
True. It's not perfectly inelastic though; at some point people will make significant changes. My guess (based on no actual evidence) is when it crosses $3.
and its not the poor that would be telecommuting - it would be knoweldge workers, people who work on their PCs all day, and could do that from home.
Also true, I'm just saying how Democrats would spin it.
I'm going to buy an Excursion tomorrow. I don't give a rats*** what the price of gas is.
I love Halliburton!
$3 / gallon at the pump before Labor Day?
must have pics : )
<img src="http://asia.vtec.net/Series/FitJazz/Intro/main.jpg"?
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