Digg ThisThe Western world is abuzz with the news of Fidel Castro handing over control of Cuba to his younger brother, Raul.
In fact, some folks are up in arms about the fact that there are many active “dead pools” speculating on his date — and possibly time — of the Cuban despot’s actual time of death.
Here’s the scoop: a dead pool is a bet. There’s a couple of different methods, but most rely on the common grid layout just like the football pool you play at work. You pick a date and a time, pay your money, and your name is entered on the grid. The person with the closest date and time without passing the actual point of death is the winner.
People covering this event — well, the dead pool — are acting like it’s a unique thing.
It’s not. And there are folks that think that this “unusual” phenomenon is a ghastly, sinful occurance.
It’s not.
Well, ghastly, maybe, but not unusual. Far from it.
Dead pools are a common thing in newsrooms. In fact, when I was working in the newsroom of the Ohio State Lantern, we had several dead pools running at any particular time. Sometimes they were about a particular person; other times they were about several people and what day they would die.
I can remember that our dead pools included Richard Nixon, Terry Anderson (everybody lost on that one), and few others. Everybody in the newsroom had money on one person or another; that was the way of things.
And it continues, even though modern newsrooms frown on the practice.
However, they persist. People decry the practice. They say it’s unchristian, morbid, immoral, whatever. They’re probably right, too.
But people will gamble on anything.
I love playing p*o*k*e*r online. I only go with play chips, no real money (my bride would kill me if I did). I like the challenge, the strategy, and the skill required to play the game.
It really is a game of skill rather than a game of luck.
I’m getting pretty good, too, as I can sit in a 90-seat tournament and, if I keep my smarts, I can usually cash (land in the top 9, the final table) in almost any tourney I enter. I win a 90-seater about once a week. I’ve gone from an intial 1,000 chip balance to about 210,000 at one site — only playing 250 chip buy-in sit-n-go’s, with 1st place prizes around 3,200 chips. Not too shabby.
Thing is, that’s not gambling. Dead pools, however, are, just like your office football pools.
My feeling is this: if you want to bet on the dead, go ahead. If you want to bet against another’s cards, or potential cards, go ahead. If you want to bet online for or against a football or baseball team, go ahead.
Just know what you’re doing. There’s risks, and I’m not talking about just losing the money. I’m talking about losing everything: your home, your spouse, your family, your job, your self esteem, everything.
It may not happen to you; it might happen to you. Personally, I get a charge out of p*o*k*e*r, but I can walk away from it for days at a time. If you can’t, there’s a problem, and you need to recognize it.
But, I digress.
There’s no real issue with a dead pool: people have been doing it for centuries. It’s an old practice. It’s one of those things that people do, so get used to it.
People have been doing football and baseball pools for a long time, too, and no one complains about those.
Personally, I wish people that wish to regulate other’s behavior would just shut up and face the music rather than try to legislate morality, which — we learned in the 1930s — doesn’t work. It goes on, it goes around, it happens regardless of whether you want it to or not.
It’s time for Ohio to get on the stick.
For Castro, my money’s on August 28th, about 3:25 p.m.
(71.8 — 67.6 — 4.2)
