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Media cries foul over
hurricane betting odds
 Over
the past week, Gambling911.com has been contacted by
nearly every major media outlet under the sun
inquiring about hurricane betting odds.
Everyone from the Gainesville Sun to the Miami
Herald to the Washington Post to Reuters has become
fascinated with this story.
The 2006 hurricane
season begins today June 1, 2006.
Beginning with the
Miami Herald article
on Memorial Day, this started an avalanche of
interest in the subject matter, much of which
centers around the so-called "callous nature" of
offering such odds.
Mickey Richardson, CEO
of
BetCRIS.com (See
Web Site Here), put it best
when approached by the Herald.
"We had to wrestle
with it, some people view it as a morbid thing to
offer," he said of his site's storm season bets.
"But we can't stop hurricanes. There's been a
true interest in it from the public."
Not surprising, the
very media entities that might frown upon such an
offering are they themselves benefiting from the
hurricane season. The Weather Channel most
certainly gets its biggest audience during peak
hurricane news (which would likely translate into
more sponsorship dollars). Likewise the major
news networks seemingly get a thrill out of placing
their top reporters in harm's way while their
audience eats it all up. Who doesn't love
watching reporters blowing around in 100 plus mph
winds?
The networks profit
from hurricane coverage. Coming into this week
one would swear it was the start of the Christmas
season. There are more "hurricane" specials on
television this week than there are animated Rudolph
and Frosty the Snowman programs leading up to
Christmas. It's amazing they haven't organized
a parade down Ocean Drive yet!
And we can also argue
that the Hurricane Season is becoming much like
Christmastime from a marketing point of view.
Stock up on bare essentials, which for this
hurricane season include expensive generators, home
insurance, extra groceries and we wouldn't be
surprised to see liquor advertisements incorporate
the whole "hurricane fear" theme.
The media has created
an entire spectacle around this year's hurricane
season and one can bet (no pun intended) these same
media outlets will be pulling out all the stops in
order to captivate audiences and, in so doing, drive
in more advertising revenue.
But like the online
gambling companies offering betting odds on the 2006
Hurricane season, news media outlets thrive off the
fascination its viewers have with hurricanes and we
want nothing more than to witness a huge wind storm
while wishing for minimum damage and zero loss of
lives.
The online gambling
industry as a whole is a responsible industry.
Companies offering such odds -
BetCRIS.com (See
Web Site Here) and
WagerWeb.com (See
Web Site Here) - refuse to
offer betting odds on storm casualties or damage.
Likewise, we won't find these establishments
erecting billboards in the middle of New Orleans
advertising hurricane betting odds.
Some will argue that
offering odds on the 2006 storm season so soon after
Hurricane Katrina, might be insensitive. And
while we would agree that marketing directly to this
region needs to be deterred, the situation that
occurred in New Orleans is far more complex than a
single hurricane, which incidentally did not even
make landfall in the city proper.
Katrina helped to
expose numerous flaws that would otherwise have
resulted in fewer lives lost and substantially less
damage. A breach of the New Orleans levy
system, a complete breakdown of government
communication and leadership and seemingly
"in-your-face" corruption that only mattered after
the death count got underway.
Take away these
factors and there is a good chance we might only be
harping on the usual risks we have come to expect
living in hurricane prone regions of the United
States and Caribbean, blown out windows, roof
damage, downed trees and - most importantly -
minimum loss of life.
Some of us are also
left wondering why the mainstream media tends to
ignore the fact that 2004 and 2005 serve as the
exception more so than the rule. Over the past
16 years, only 6 of those years did we witness a
Category three or higher storm hit the US mainland.
Successful sports
bettors shy away from future predictions and public
perceptions, opting instead to review past
historical data and trends, both of which point to a
third consecutive hurricane season as defying all
odds. A +600 offering at
BetCRIS.com (See
Web Site Here) on ZERO
Category 3 or above hurricanes hitting the mainland
United States would make the most sense based on the
above criteria. Another season like the last
two and we might want to focus our criticisms on
failed attempts to stop global warming rather than
vent our frustration at some online bookmakers.
----
Christopher Costigan,
www.gambling911.com
Originally published
May 31, 2006 11:32 pm EST
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