Ron Paul Magic Number: $5 Million2008 US Presidential candidate Ron Paul supporters are calling this one a "sucker bet". The long time Texas Congressman raising UNDER $5 mil on December 16, 2007 pays just under even odds at $5 for every $6 bet (plus you would get your initial $5 returned if the effort fails to raise $5 million over that single 24 hour period.
Sportsbook.com has placed the $5 mil line (Over or Under) on the amount Ron Paul will raise December 16. That's the next date for his campaign "money bomb". The last "money bomb" shocked critics by taking in just over $4 mil in a single day's period. The effort helped quash any lasting suspicions that Ron Paul's camp was using a small group of so-called "shills" or spammers to bombard various posting forums and media outlets with his "message of hope".
While many in the media continue to question whether Ron Paul can translate Internet popularity into real votes (he's one of the most queried individuals on the Web), his supporters are now more concerned with raising the $12 million they forecasted for the final quarter of 2007. He's already more than three quarters there and if Sportsbook.com is correct with its line, Paul's campaign may even exceed the original $12 mil goal.
"Clearly the under is a sucker's bet!" commented KyleJack on the RonPaulForums
Ron Paulites seem eager to raise more than the $4.2 generated during the last "money bomb". Amazingly, much of that money came from small contributors, not big corporations.
"Hitting the $12 million goal will pretty much seal the deal for Ron Paul to make it deep into the primaries," comments Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of Gambling911.com. O'Brien has been monitoring odds on the Sportsbook.com website for more than six months, watching Ron Paul's odds get slashed from 200/1 to 6/1 over that period. "Other candidates may be more popular with their party hardliners but those party hardliners better have enough cash to give to the Mitt Romneys and Rudy Giuliani's for them to compete effectively with Dr. Paul."
Ron Paul is the only candidate on the Sportsbook.com website to have his own betting option.
"In the world of online gambling, Ron Paul has more clout than Hillary Clinton it appears."
Hillary, however, continues to hold strong as the favorite to win the next election. Paul is leading both Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. He's dangerously close to pushing past Rudy Giuliani as well.
Ron Paul winning the GOP and eventually the 2008 US Presidency is now a very real possibility.
"Somebody call George "That's not going to happen" Stephanopoulos and tell him to put his money where his mouth is," joked one poster at the RonPaulForums, referring to Stephanopoulos insulting Dr. Paul during an interview, saying he would not win.
Ron Paul has become a huge friend of the Internet gambling community. He defended online gambling legality last week during a Washington hearing. The Presidential hopeful was one of only a few who did not vote for legislation that would ban many forms of online gambling. That measure was sneaked into an unrelated Port Security act.
Senator Barack Obama, a known poker player, has yet to fully support the concept of legalized online gambling.
The Des Moines Register has credited the Internet gambling industry for helping to remove Iowa Representative Jim Leach from office. He was a co-author of the now infamous Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. A massive email and call campaign to thousands of Iowa citizens from online gambling interests helped seal the frontrunners fate during last year's elections.
Ron Paul supporters, who have been told time and time again their favorite candidate is lagging in the polls, can take solace in knowing that Jim Leach was winning by a large margin in the polls right up to Election Day 2006.
File Under: Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Betting Odds
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
Originally published November 20, 2007 4:09 pm ET
