Free Republic

If you can make ridiculous calls like this one, you can definitely use your "discretion" to rig a game. And that's why people don't trust the NFL anymore. Watch this absolute non-penalty get called for a fifteen yarder with an automatic first down. .... Roughing the passer?! They literally hit him as he’s throwing. It’s impossible to play football if this is roughing. ... Bro, those dudes were half a second from a sack, not even! Just absolutely ridiculous refereeing here. And Kirk Herbstreit's commentary is just brilliant. You can tell he's been around long enough to know how to...

Gamblers are shying away from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden after he failed to get a substantial poll bounce from the Democratic National Convention, cutting in half his once-massive lead over President Trump. The latest from the betting-market site Smarkets still shows odds favoring a Biden win, but they are tightening, and Trump still has three more nights to make his case at the virtual Republican National Convention. The analysis shared with Secrets said, “Joe Biden’s lead over Donald Trump in our ‘Next President’ market has more than halved since its peak at the beginning of August. Trading activity on...

Newt Gingrich's fortunes on the prediction betting website InTrade have collapsed in the past three days, amid an unrelenting assault from all sides in the Republican field. After pushing close to 40 percent on the site, he's down to a 16.5 percent chance of winning the nomination. Mitt Romney, who fell as low as 42 percent on the site last week, is back up to 64 percent. The radical swing is a reflection of the growing unease on all sides about Gingrich's viability as the nominee - and recent polling showing that Gingrich's rise to the top in Iowa was...

People are afraid to lose money and an unusual study released on Monday explains why -- the brain's fear center controls the response to a gamble. U.S. | Science | Health | Lifestyle The study of two women with brain lesions that made them unafraid to lose on a gamble showed the amygdala, the brain's fear center, activates at the very thought of losing money. [...]

WASHINGTON D.C. Think global warming will raise the oceans enough to submerge Cape Hatteras? Want to bet on it? An online gambling service has started taking bets on global warming, including whether it can submerge some of the East Coast's top vacation spots. The odds that Virginia's Cape Henry will be under water by 2015 - 200-to-1 at BetUs.com. Its odds for Cape Hatteras flooding by the same date - 300-to-1. Don't bet on it, says Phil Roehrs, a coastal engineer for the city of Virginia Beach. Roehrs said although sea levels are rising along the East Coast, scientists are...

CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.

just curious if any of you use online handicappers for sports betting, be it horse racing or football, etc. I check a few for free picks, but was considering finding a decent pay service. any recommendations?

All the votes have been cast in Fortune City’s Presidential Poll this week, with the surprising results that a higher percentage of online gamblers back Bush in the forthcoming presidential elections. Bush gained 54% of the vote from Kerry in a poll that was constantly swinging back and forth from its inception on April 1st. It certainly seems odd that people would vote for a government which seeks to outlaw one of their favourite pastimes, but who are we to question such things? Dennis Rose, Senior Vice President at Casino Fortune, explained the idea behind the poll and the company’s...

As of today April 30, President Bush is leading John Kerry 57 percentage points to Kerry's 43 points in an on-line poll with 11,765 participants responding according to CasinoFortune.com, which bills itself as "one of the leading Internet casino sites." Casino Fortune has vowed to donate a total of $100,000 to the winner’s campaign and political party. Voting will stop at midnight, May 15 and a winner will be declared. The poll can be on the casinofortune.com website. While there are no Las Vegas odds on the contest because gambling on presidential elections is illegal in Nevada, as of today's...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Compulsive Australian gamblers seeking help from Gamblers Anonymous are being hit with online casino pop-up advertisements when they visit the Web site of the self-help group, the Daily Telegraph newspaper says. Australians gambled away a record $11 billion in the year to June 2002 -- nearly two percent of gross domestic product and slightly more than the nation's defense budget, according to national statistics released late last year. "This is when they least need that temptation. They are reaching out for support. Suddenly cues that allow them to gamble are there," Louise Sharpe, director of the University...