Online bookmakers listing Illinois Senator as 9-4 favourite to become 44th President of the United States
Thursday 12th June 2008
Following last Saturday’s concession by Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, online bookmakers WillHill.com have installed Illinois Senator Barrack Obama as its 9-4 favourite to be the 44th President of the United States.
The UK-based bookies have placed Republican candidate John McCain as second favourite at odds of 6-4 followed by outsiders Bob Barr and Ralph Nader at 100-1. OddsChecker.com lists 13 bookmakers currently taking bets on the future President with every one listing Obama as favourite by some margin followed by McCain.
According to sportsbetting information portal SportsMemo.com, McCain has been an outspoken and active opponent of all forms legalised wagering on university sports and sponsored legislation that would outlaw legal, regulated betting on ‘amateur athletics’ in Nevada casinos.
“McCain wants to eliminate what he sees as the most troubling aspects of legalised gambling in the United States,” read a piece on SportsMemo.com.
“He has led the fight to ban gambling on college sports, a battle the Nevada casinos have won (so far), in part by suggesting that he would make Super Bowl and NCAA pools illegal. And McCain would ban Internet gambling not because it’s addictive but because players typically have no way of knowing whether they are in fair games.”
In the other camp, legalising and regulating online sportsbetting has not been an issue for Obama and he has not gone on the record either supporting or disagreeing with the leisure pursuit. However, he was a regular participant in weekly poker games while in the Illinois State Legislature and supports a study on Internet gambling. In addition, the Democrat wants regulations to address the worst abuses, which many feel is the first step to a regulated US online gambling industry.
