The popular however inevitably controversial online betting site InTrade shut down abruptly on Sunday, citing an ongoing investigation and casting skepticism on Irish law in a vaguely worded statement.
Nobody knows for sure who will replace Pope Benedict XVI. But a lack of knowledge has never stopped people from gambling on uncertain outcomes, and thousands of people are placing bets, with real money, on potential candidates for the 267th leader of the Catholic Church.
Zynga recently filed a preliminary application for a gambling license in Nevada. We're not talking about gambling with Farmville credits, either. We're talking cold hard cash.
The tens of thousands of people hoping you got all of your numbers wrong have made tonight's drawing an unavoidable thing, thanks to the numbers being bandied about on social media.
We're already gearing up for the year's big literary/gambling hybrid: The 2012 Nobel prize for literature! Will our laureate be Bob Dylan? Haruki Murakami? Mo Yan or Cees Nooteboom? The speculation has begun.
The Olympics have a Pete Rose scandal on their hands. An Irish athlete's been accused of placing bets on an opponent in an event they were also competing in. To make matters weirder, their longshot bet came through.
The international charity Oxfam won £100,000 yesterday thanks to a gambler who predicted Roger Federer's record-tying Wimbledon run all the way back in 2003.
RG3 makes uniform history, Atlantic City wants to legalize sports betting by the end of the year, and the French Open starts this weekend.
If a group of Korean Jogye monks wanted to party, gamble some, throw back some drinks, and smoke some cigarettes with us, we'd probably be down and wouldn't secretly videotape the whole thing. Then again, we aren't members of Korea's buddhist community or a rival, disgruntled monk.
Also in sports: another day, another NFL contract worth $100 million.
Every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the video clips that truly earn your fiveminutes (or less) of attention. Today: Will Ferrell's latest Old Milwaukee Super Bowl ad was for Nebraska eyes only, the animals at Belgrade's zoo struggle with Europe's latest cold snap, and a reasonable response to winning a $7,500 bet.
Today in sports: Peyton Manning and Jim Irsay promise his final days with the Indianapolis Colts will be civil, Cleveland once again is a prime target for "sports blackmail," and college basketball is getting tough on taunting.
The Big 10 and Pac-12 close a new scheduling deal to gobble up more college sports scheduling real estate, Penn State's top choice to replace Joe Paterno passes, and Alex Rodriguez's bad knee gets the experimental blood therapy treatment in Germany.
Today in sports: The NFL finds a suitably contrarian argument to help promote its new magazine, agent Leigh Steinberg is in a Twitter fight with Arizona State University, and the NFLPA isn't quite sold on giving union chief DeMaurice Smith a $1 million year-end bonus.
Aside from one controversial abortion referendum in Mississippi, Tuesday's election reflects how states are struggling through tough times.
Plus: Rod Stewart jumps into the pop star memoir game
Plus: How to bet on the Nobel Prize in Literature
An explainer, after two players and an ex-coach are charged with fixing games
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