Weird British Gambling.

Poststructural Pub
1

I just read, in the Baltimore Sun, that “novelty betting,” is a new hot thing in the UK.
People are placing bets on whether/when Britney Spears will occupy the White House, whether their own grandmothers will live to 100, or how many sips of water the chancellor will take while addressing the House of Commons.
Warren Lush, the chief oddsmaker at Ladbrokes Ltd says:
“If I lived in a vault and based what was going on outside solely on the bets we get, I’d think I live in a very strange country.”

So, what strange bets do UK chiffers make?

2

I’m betting your new larfin whistle sounds sweeeeeeeeet (but it’s still not my preciousssss!). I’m also betting I know what Amar’s gonna be thinking when he reads this, and I’m betting it won’t be long before cranberry tells us we shouldn’t make light of gambling like this because he is/was/knows/is related to/read about someone who is/was a gambling addict.

3

I bet this topic goes to page 2 because of everyone’s seemingly clever, spur-of-the-moment bets.

4

Right, yer on!

uhm… sportsman’s bet though, okay?

5

My bookmakers willing to give even money odds that within 5 years Gary Kelly will actually look like his avatar.

6

What’re the odds that I already do?

7

One fears for the grandmothers who aren’t living up to their end of the bargain…or are living up to their end…or whatever.

Susan

8

I don’t see any of that as wierder than betting on whether a single snowflake will fall on the roof of the London Weather Centre on Christmas Day, or whether Elvis will be discovered, disguised as Lord Lucan, living in a Council flat in Milton Keynes, before the year 2010.

You’ve gotta be a lot more eccentric (and inventive) than that before you can claim to be an eccentric in England.

9

A single snowflake as opposed to none at all, or as opposed to more than one?

Bill Bryson mentioned a great English eccentric in his books “Notes from a Small Country”. I believe this was the fellow who didn’t like anyone to see him, and instructed his staff to pretend he was a statue if they accidentally saw him on one of his rare voyages out of his area of the mansion, yet built a huge underground ballroom. When he died, they found a large room filled to bursting with identical green boxes, each containing a single dark wig. According to Bryson, “This was a man worth knowing”.