When we think about placing a bet, our thoughts usually turn to the horses and other sports, however, these days, it’s possible to gamble on pretty much anything. From royal babies to celebrity deaths, bookmakers are happy to take their punters’ cash on all manner of wagers and, today, we’re going to be talking about a relatively common one for bookies – the end of the world.
Aliens and killer plants
Each year, around 83 people in the UK hand over their hard earned cash to betting shops in a gamble to predict the date – and manner – of our world ending. In 2011, a Christian cult in the USA gambled its entire donations of $100 million on the world ending on May the 21st, 2011. Needless to say, the cult lost that bet and ended up out of pocket. While losing a bet is considered to be bad news, you can’t help but wonder why somebody would place a bet on the end of the world when they would, of course, have no chance of collecting their winnings. With this in mind, its no wonder that bookies are happy to relieve these gamblers of their cash – and some even offer odds on the manner of the world ending – some of these include:
- A plague of zombies – 1000 to 1
- An alien invasion – 500 to 1
- Plants becoming sentient – 600 to 1
- An uprising of apes – 4600 to 1
- A vampire invasion – 35 million to 1
Of course, predicting the end of the world is not a new concept – many people and organizations have taken a stab at this, including William Miller and Harold Camping, however, not many of these people have chosen to put their money where their mouth is and actually place a cash bet on their predictions.
A place in the sun
When it comes to the idea of our world ending, you’re probably best keeping hold of your cash as, researchers predict that the Earth has a little time left – around five billion years, to be precise. Scientists predict that sometime way into the future, the sun will expand into a giant glowing star which will almost certainly consume our planet, thus ending the world.
Conclusion
While your local betting shop or live casino might be happy to take a bet from you on such a low possibility thing as the world ending, you would almost certainly be throwing your money away. If you do fancy a flutter, a safer bet will be to stick to football scores or, even, the winner of the next reality TV show.
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