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Bookmaker.com, the oldest established North American online gambling firm, has long taken down odds on which country would face unrest following Egypt. Nonetheless, as we look at the next nation to meet that preset criteria, Libya and its initial 5/1 odds may have a few gamblers elated.
The preset criteria as we believe it to be would require a government/regime to ultimately collapse. While the Middle Eastern nations of Bahrain and Yemen have technically witnessed the most serious protests and/or unrest immediately following Husni Mubarak’s forced departure, Libya looks to be the next country to actually fall in terms of a regime change. The Eastern portion of that North African nation is already said to be under the control of civilians and anti-Muammar Ghadafi protestors.
Ghadafi is the longest serving head of state in the Arab world. He has been the leader of Libya since a coup in 1969.
On Tuesday, following days of unrest and bloodshed, Ghadafi went on national TV to deliver a rambling speech that lasted more than an hour. Among the many highlights, the colorful leader insisted he would remain in Libya and die a martyr. He also went on to suggest that the “young” protestors were mostly under the influence of drugs and that they would be systematically executed.
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"Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world,” he went on to declare.
Some defections have already occurred within Ghadafi’s administration, most notably the country’s Interior Minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi, who declared his support for the "February 17 revolution”.
In an interview with the Al Arabiya television network, Younnes said, "I begged Gaddafi not to send planes, I called him. Now of course we don't speak, I have joined the revolution," Al Jazeera reported. "I gave orders to my men in Benghazi not to shoot protesters, not one of my men shot at protesters," he added. "I guarantee that none of my men shot at protesters."
Bookmaker.com had initially installed Yemen, Jordan and Gaza as the favorites to encounter the most serious national unrest after Egypt. Each had 2/1 odds. Israel, with a price of 4/1, actually had longer odds than Libya.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
