Now you can bet on anything

I am fascinated with the online betting markets, where you can put your money on anything from politics to Taylor Swift’s love life.

Who will win a U.S. Senate race? How many times will the sports announcer say “triple double?” What will be the country’s No. 1 song next week? Will the U.S. confirm that aliens exist before 1967? These are some of the topics for gamblers on Kalshi and Polymarket.

More bets: Who will win “Survivor” in Season 50? Will Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce be married this year? (65% say yes.) What will announcers say in the Reds-Astros baseball game? (Grand slam and walk off are the favorites).

Even better are the scandals. An Army sergeant was arrested for betting on whether his squad would capture the president of Venezuela (he won $400,000). A low-level politician bet on whether he would run for office.  Both bets were considered insider trading, which is illegal. And Kalshi refused to pay someone who predicted that the supreme leader of Iran would be removed from power by a certain date. He was killed by U.S. air attacks, but Kalshi’s policy is not to pay for deaths, figuring such betting can led to murder. Critics were outraged.

I have read that knowledgeable, experienced bettors are “eating the lunch” of amateurs who just wager on their private hunches.

Well, I would like to open a betting market of my own. ---First one: How many times will the train come through South Boston tomorrow? And how many minutes and seconds will it take?

--How many people will attend Lakefest this summer?

--Will the Dan River flood up to U.S. 58?

--What local restaurants will open and close this year?

--What will be the high temperature in July?

--I could add some bets on local politics, but then I would get into trouble.

--How many times will Mike Doan use the word “old” in his Mike’s Mic column?

So who’d like to place a wager?