Making Democracy Interesting

(I swear, I'll think about comics again once the election's over!)

After looking for days (I'm not into online gambling normally), I thought I'd be disappointed since it was a mid-term, but the internet did not let me down. Yes, there are people gambling on the government this year! It took until tonight to find the odds, though. The professionals are putting their money on a Democratic Congress (Link goes to an online gambling site):

Washington, DC (Nov.6, 2006) – Political gamblers at Sportsbook.com, the world’s largest online sportsbook and casino, seem less confident in a Republican majority Senate. Today almost 63 per cent of the money is going to the Republican line compared to almost 88 per cent that headed there last week. Meanwhile, bettors haven’t really changed their view that Democrats will take a majority of the House seats with almost 73 per cent of the money bet on a Democrat victory, down marginally from 75 per cent last week

According to the latest odds at Sportsbook.com, the Democrats are -450 to win the House and +200 to gain control of the Senate. Republicans are +300 to retain control over the House and -280 to retain the Senate.

With Americans heading to the polls tomorrow (Tuesday) latest polls continue to show Democrats sure to pick up lots of seats – but will they get the magic 15 needed to gain control? Many of the tight races could fall to Republicans with their vaunted ‘get out the vote machine’, so there is plenty of uncertainty to present a worthy challenge for political gamblers.

Granted, Vegas oddsmakers favored Kerry two to one in 2004, so this doesn't lock anything. But, in case someone has time to put a little money down there it is. The link goes into detail on the most talked about Senate races.