Is it legal to bet on the outcome of an election?
 

And.... 2nd question --- if you had to wager $1000 on the outcome of THIS election.....

who would your money be on?


Seriously... who?

It's one thing to talk shit about who's going to win, blah blah blah bush will kick ass.... yadda yadda blah blah Kerry is going to own bush....... you know as well as I do that NONE of you know shit at this point about what the real outcome is going to be. None of you.

So think about it. If it might hurt you in the wallet a little.... who would you seriously put your money on?

i think it is pretty illegal

i would wager at least $10,000 on kerry for sure

I understand about wanting something so badly that you can't even fathom any other outcome other than one in your favor.... but at this point in time, less than a week until we find out who the next US prez will be.... I can't say the same with any degree of confidence.

I really don't know who is going to win. I hate to say it (for your sake), but if I absolutely had to put money on one or the other, I think it would be on Bush.

tradesports.com bet there.

You can bet on anything, nothing illegal about it beside you got insider infos and are trying to cheat others with it.

K, for those of the more mentally destabilized ability, I wasn't asking for betting sites. My two questions are rather straightforward and although I've tried, I can't really think of a way to dumb them down any further.

Answered the first question and provided a site where you can bet on that in case you're interested.

I don't bet on events where I don't have any serious advantages.

So that's one that says it is illegal, and one that says it is legal. Anyone else?


Just because betting sites exist and are allowing election betting doesn't automatically indicate that it is legal.

Legal according to who?

As if betting sites would do anything illegal...

not sure about the 1st question but my money would be on bush if i were betting 1k on it. 75% of the people voting for kerry just dislike bush, which means he doesnt have enough to sway the undecided voters come election time.

The law.

That's the thing of it..... Many people don't like Bush and say they intend to vote for Kerry, BUT..... if they had to put a good chunk of their hard-earned change on it, how would they vote? When money is on the line, sometimes a person's confidence changes completely.

I hear you.

Who's law? Laws are different in every country, and the laws of one country don't necessarily apply to the people of another country.

Maybe it's legal in Uruguay? Maybe it's illegal in China? Maybe it's legal in South Africa?

Asking "is it legal?" on an internet forum is an incredibly vague question.

Well one would have to be quite braindead not to know there is a US election at hand. Do I really have to say "USA ELECTION" to make my meaning known this particular week?

Holy shit.

It's pretty illegal ! And I'd vote for Kerry !

If you're in the US, and want to legally bet on a US election in the US, I think your safest (only?) option is the Iowa Electronic Markets, at http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/. You can open an account with a maximum of $500. It's been run for some time as an academic research project of sorts by the U of Iowa, and has a governmental exemption from laws that would otherwise ban such a service.

You may recall after 9/11, a federal (I forget from which department) proposal was made to allow similar betting on future terrorist events, with the hope that it might be useful in identifying national security weaknesses. Public outrage quickly buried the idea.

1. The title of your thread is "Is it legal to bet on the outcome of an election?"

"an election"

That is your first question. It makes no reference to any specific election or country, simply elections in general.

Also, asking "is it legal?" is incredibly vague. See, you're on this thing called the internet, and there are people from all over the world here, so asking "is it legal?" is entirely dependent on the country that the betting is taking place in and the citizenship of the person placing the bet.

Here ya go

http://jizzflicks.com/sport/sb.gif

:CDSmith

LEGAL??? *Anyone* anyplace is free to bet on *anything* they damned well like! :glugglug

If ya are unfortunate enough to live in the US - these freedoms may be restricted by law.

Elsewhere, no biggie!

Ya can bet on it that there are plenty bets on in other countries over the US election :-)