Our Wager Of The Week Winner: Clive Palmer

Diverting attention from his fiscal troubles Clive Palmer is our Wager of the Week winner for sticking to his plans to build Titanic II, a full-sized copy of the original.

Wager Of The Week

• Australian Clive Palmer
• Mining magnate investigated
• Titanic II to be built

Clive Palmer made his money (and he has a lot of it) from mining, he owns a string of golf courses and is the incumbent Member of Parliament for Fairfax under the auspices of The Palmer United Party which he founded, but if you’re Australian gambling laws covering aliases might trip up this larger than life character or in some way cow him, guess again.

The mining magnate is said to have used aliases to be a ‘shadow director’ of Queensland Nickel, which went bust with debts to creditors and staff of some $100 million, and whilst some might keep a low profile as the Senate Economics Legislative Committee sniffs around, Mr. Palmer seems to be gambling precisely the opposite is a good idea, and the best way to fight that sinking feeling is to keep an old idea afloat.

Is Our Wager Of The Week Winner A Disaster In Waiting?

The “Blue Star Line”, owned by Palmer, has made it clear that it will be pushing ahead with its plans for Titanic II, a full scale replica of the ship that so famously sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912. Betting you can get away with fiscal jiggery-pokery behind the scenes of massive corporations is one thing, but gambling on another Titanic? Definitely a wager of the week winner. 

It is claimed the first voyage of the new vessel will be from the Chinese port of Jiangsu all the way to Dubai (a route that is unlikely to see many icebergs) in 2018, and James McDonald from Blue Line has been quoted as saying “People are lining up to be part of it.” Which will, I suppose, be good practice when they’re queuing up to get on the lifeboats later on. Gambling news of this venture will distract from his woes makes Clive Palmer our Wager of the Week winner without a doubt.