Stakes are high in hurricane betting

[Janice]

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- It's a slow time of year for avid gamblers. The basketball and hockey playoffs are over and football is weeks away.

But gambling on what this hurricane season will produce is proving almost as irresistible as guessing the day Britney Spears will give birth.

U.S. casinos do not offer hurricane bets, and the Justice Department says online gambling is illegal. But that doesn't stop devotees, a few thousand of whom have placed hurricane wagers with online casinos based in other countries.

"Betting on baseball gets boring. You're looking for a little action every now and then," said Ken Moore, who plunked down $75 in hurricane bets. "Betting on the hurricanes, I couldn't resist it."

Moore, a graphic designer from Quincy, Massachusetts, will make a profit of about $72.50 if exactly two hurricanes of Category 3 or higher strike the United States this season. He will make $5 if one hits. If none hit or three or more hit, he loses. Category 3 storms have sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

Some victims of Hurricane Katrina and the seven other storms that walloped the United States over the past two seasons think the betting is tacky if not downright cruel.

Virginia Saussy Bairnsfather said her fellow New Orleans residents have developed a pretty good sense of humor since Katrina devastated their city, killing 1,577 Louisiana residents. It's a sort of "if you don't laugh, then you'll cry mentality," she said.

She isn't appalled by hurricane wagering but would like to see the money better spent.

"I wish that everyone who placed a bet on where a hurricane is going to land would take at least 10 percent of that money and do something to help victims," said Bairnsfather, who lost the first floor of her home to 8 feet of water poured in by Katrina.

Moore could go along with that. "If I got a little windfall, I'd probably give some to the Red Cross," he said.

Hurricane gamblers have several options for placing bets. One is how many hurricanes will hit the United States. Another is how many will hit Florida and what category they will be.

The safest bets offer 2.25-to-1 odds that at least two Category 3 storms will hit the United States, according to odds posted by BetCRIS.com. Gamblers think the chances of six or more storms hitting the United States (5-to-1 odds) are more likely than no hurricanes hitting at all (6-to-1 odds).

"Hurricanes are a hot subject right now," said Calvin Ayre, founder and CEO of online casino Bodog.com. "Anything they have an interest in generally, they also like to bet on if they're gamblers."
'We tried to make it in good taste'

Mickey Richardson, CEO of BetCRIS.com, said he did wonder if he should continue offering hurricane bets after Katrina.

"But our clients who were used to seeing us offer these events pretty much requested it again," Richardson said. "We tailored it in a way where we to tried to make it in good taste. We stayed as far away as we could from hurricane alley in the gulf in Louisiana and Mississippi. The last thing I want to do is profit off of a disaster that happened last year."

The National Weather Service doesn't think much of the trend.

"I think it's pretty sad that people are betting on an issue that involves peoples' lives and property," said spokesman Greg Romano in Miami. "Hurricanes are dangerous and for people to bet on them is really, really sad."

Still, people have wagered on much worse.

In the 1790s people in Philadelphia and New York bet on which city would have more deaths during a bad yellow fever outbreak. In 18th century London people would take bets as patients were being wheeled into surgery on whether they would survive, said David Schwartz, director of center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

"People used to bet on things that involved death a lot more because people weren't so sensitive about it," Schwartz said. "I'm sure people who were personally affected by a hurricane who either lost a home or lost loved ones probably wouldn't think it's such an amusing thing to bet on."