Sports Gambling

This year, during the superbowl, I learned something new about sports gambling. Evidently, it's not good enough to make a few bucks on a game. When you bet on your team, you must demand terms that end up decimating or humiliating your opponent.

I considered a bet with a guy I work with. I wanted to bet my Patriots would beat his Giants. His response was, "Ok, sure. Hundred bucks?"

Are you freakin' ceareal? A hundred bucks? I told him, no, I was thinking more along the lines of maybe five or ten bucks.

"What you don't believe in your team? Come on, hundred bucks." Nope, thanks. I'm all set. Forget it.

And across the country people made bets with similar terms. Maybe not money but: "If I win, you gotta streak naked through the store painted blue." "Ok, if my Giants beat your Patriots, you have to go skinny dipping in our leech infested pond. But if you win, I have to eat a bowl of live cockroaches."

I think a friendly wager of five to ten bucks is more than reasonable, but I also seem to remember back home in Massachusetts the local auto mechanic would do major betting pools on baseball games. The stakes were high and the money got pretty ridculous for it being blue collars making the wagers.

Friendly wager. There must be no such thing any more.