New Statesman: racing card - British betting on United States election

The Bet: Who will be the next US president?

Al Gore 4-6

G W Bush 11-10

(Source William Hill)

Here in America, betting on the presidential race is illegal. That's not stopped thousands of keen punters linking up with the British bookies' websites to place their bets, though. Most of their money has been on Al Gore, but one Far East punter slapped [pound]4,000 on George W Bush this week.

Even though the campaign is now in top gear, most Americans I have met remain indifferent--and won't even bother to vote. Most of the interest is on the Mets' and Yankies' domination of baseball and the Washington Redskins injury list, rather than the boring presidential debate.

I watched the second debate at the debate party. Even the political junkies there were bored with this fiasco. Amazingly, despite the fact that Bush can't spell Bob backwards, he's now ahead in some of the polls. This is difficult to understand because, only a few days ago, Gore was ahead and nothing has happened in between.

All I can say is that the polls are very volatile, although, crucially, in the states that matter, Gore is still slightly ahead. Probably for this reason, the bookies still have Gore as hot favourite, and as I'm more inclined to back their judgement than the latest CNN tracking poll, my money is on Gore.

If you can't make up your mind on this one, you could always have a punt on who will be the next England manager. Terry Venables may be 6-4 favourite, but he's only the favourite with Terry Venables. He has as much chance of getting the job as there is of George W Bush coming out against capital punishment.