The World Bets on the US presidential elections 2016

Will the US gambling supporters make further efforts for legalizing the betting on the US presidential elections 2016?

The elections in the US, especially the presidential ones, have been for a long time already in the focus of interest in many other countries. This is perfectly understandable if we have in mind the geo political and economic role that the United States of America play in the world. However many would be surprised if we say that the US presidential elections 2016 are also interesting from purely betting reasons. Yet, as gambling news report, that is exactly the case with the presidential elections in 2016.

Will the US presidential elections 2016 change the betting laws in the States?

Betting on the US presidential elections 2016 becomes nowadays kind of a business overseas. Many Americans are trying to join the fun although according to the US laws online gambling and betting on elections is prohibited. Through the betting sites we can also follow the general ratings of the candidates. Thus, in the last few weeks tons of pages have been written on the statements and activities of Donald Trump.

And while he is a target of criticism from all sides, his chances for winning the Republican nomination have considerably improved. The odds for Trump changed from 20-1 to 15-1, and are probably going to improve even further. According to Jimmy Vaccaro, a renowned odds maker at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, “he is a marquee value. He is like the Dallas Cowboys. People either love him or love to hate him.”

• Donald Trump improves his odds to win
• Americans interested to bet on the elections abroad
• IEM provides legal betting on the US elections

Vaccaro is making the unofficial odds on the Republican presidential nominee “for entertainment purposes only,” and he is planning to update them every week until the end of the campaign. The laws of all the states do not allow online gambling on elections, but the supporters of the idea of legalized betting on elections are still hoping that this will eventually be changed. 

According to Nelson Rose, professor at Whittier Law School in Los Angeles and an expert on international gaming laws, the pressure on the US to change their laws concerning gambling on elections is huge precisely because of the gambling activities overseas. For example online gambling sites in Ireland and England already started offering different kinds of betting categories concerning the question who will win the US presidential elections 2016. According to mobile betting sites the prediction market in respect to the upcoming elections for president in the States is expected to boom not only in the UK but also in other parts of Europe, Canada, Australia as well as parts of Central and South America.

IEM provides legal betting on the US presidential elections 2016

In the United States there is however a way to wager legally on the US 2016 presidential elections. Through the Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), a research website operated by the University of Iowa, American citizens can place legally a wager on the presidential elections with real money and through future contracts. The Iowa Electronic Markets received a special permission by the US federal laws the market it creates will be used for educational purposes only at the economic department. Betting on elections is widely considered in the US to be influential on the final results. However professor Rose does not share this opinion when the presidential elections are concerned. He stresses that “that’s hard to do on a presidential level, but not on the local level. These are pretty archaic laws from a time when it was easier to rig elections than they are today.” And while the influence of the betting on the result is an issue in the US the betting operations on the US presidential elections are booming all over the world.

Odds for the next president (Photo: The Boston Globe)

The lawmakers of Nevada even emphasized that the US is losing considerably with this kind of gambling legislative, report online gambling sites in US. Richard “Tick” Segerblom, a Nevada state Senator, was one of the few that tried to pass a law that makes it legal the betting on the US elections. The draft law passed the Senate in 2013. However it did not pass the state House. He stated, after the case was closed. that the whole situation with refusing the proposal “seemed like a no-brainer to him”. “In reality, it’s already happening in Europe.” said Sagerblom “why not bet in Nevada and make some money on it? People say it’s going to ruin our reputation. This is Nevada. What kind of reputation are you talking about?”

According estimations of experts and odds makers, such as Vaccaro, if the US presidential elections will be legalized their betting popularity will be on the same level as that of the Super Bowl Sunday. Larry DeGaris, professor of marketing at the University of Indianapolis, concludes this issue on with a nice sentence: “elections are a horse race. That’s how they’re set up. That’s how they’re covered”.