With Tinseltown set at hand out the Academy Awards on Sunday, the query for some in Alberta is whether or not to take the long-shot wager on “Barbie” or put the sensible cash down on “Oppenheimer.”
Each films are up for finest image and on the betting line in Alberta, which has joined different provinces in upping the ante with extra choices for novelty betting.
Alberta’s lottery regulator says it has added betting on the Oscars to its roster of on-line playing choices in time for this 12 months’s pink carpet extravaganza.
“We’ve really provided novelty wagers previously … for Golden Globes. However actually within the run-up to the Academy Awards, it’s drawing a whole lot of curiosity,” stated Dan Keene, vice-president of gaming with Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Hashish.
Sports activities and on line casino betting have at all times been enormous, however are movie followers as eager to gamble?
Corrie Hausauer, who lives in Lethbridge, Alta., has been an awards fan since 1990 and hosts an annual Oscars-viewing social gathering, with proceeds going to charity. He stated he isn’t holding one this 12 months, although, as a result of he’ll really be on the present in Los Angeles.
“I’m not a betting particular person,” Hausauer stated when requested whether or not he was keen on putting an Oscars wager on the province’s Play Alberta website.
“I choose speaking about them.”
Brian Owens, the inventive director for the Calgary Worldwide Movie Competition, stated he obtained 23 of 24 classes proper for the Academy Awards in 2014 and is tempted to put a wager.
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“If you happen to needed to a take a small threat for finest image, I’d really put a buck down on ‘The Zone of Curiosity,’ as a result of it’s 50-1,” Owens stated, talking concerning the odds the location is giving the wartime drama.
“While you take a look at finest image with ‘Oppenheimer’ being a greenback or two for each greenback you wager, that’s not even a wager value taking.”
David Hodgins, a College of Calgary professor of scientific psychology, stated any enlargement to playing carries dangers for dependancy. Extra playing choices imply extra alternative for some bettors to “get in over their heads.”
However he stated novelty bets just like the Oscars aren’t doubtless as problematic as on-line sports activities betting, the place gamblers can place bets all through the course of a recreation.
“It begins to resemble a slot machine by way of how fast it’s for those who gamble throughout video games,” stated Hodgins, who additionally does work for the Alberta Gaming Analysis Institute.
Oscars betting by provincially regulated playing web sites isn’t new.
Loto-Québec and Atlantic Lottery Corp. began providing it again in 2013. Unregulated web sites have additionally taken bets on leisure awards and novelty occasions for years.
Matt Lee with the British Columbia Lottery Corp. stated its PlayNow website takes bets on the Oscars in addition to the Grammys, the Golden Globes and different awards.
Novelty bets are additionally being provided on who would be the subsequent United States president, the subsequent silver display screen James Bond and the subsequent pope.
They have been even bets earlier than final month’s Tremendous Bowl on whether or not Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce would suggest to his pop-superstar girlfriend, Taylor Swift, throughout the occasion. (He didn’t).
The PlayNow odds this week for “Barbie,” which stars Margot Robbie as the long-lasting doll who will get transplanted to the actual world, profitable finest image are 67-1. On Play Alberta, they’re 68-1. Which means a small wager would garner a big return.
Different Oscars classes on the web sites which are producing huge curiosity are finest actress, the place the percentages are shut for high contenders Emma Stone, nominated for “Poor Issues,” and Lily Gladstone, for her function in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Extra individuals are betting on Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer to take finest actor over Paul Giamatti within the comedy-drama “The Holdovers.”
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