Hurricane ‘predictions’ latest online gambling trend

 You can call the national weather service. Or you can wager, against other gamblers, online, on the probability of that happening.

“You can bet on anything these days,” Dan Grody, a spokesman for WagerWeb.com, the popular Costa Rica-based site, told OnlineCasinoCrawler.com in an interview.  “WagerWeb.com has odds posted for customers to bet on conditions of the upcoming hurricane season.”

One of the Internet\'s largest betting sites known for its offering of odds for the hottest issues surrounding the news media --especially sports -- posted odds this month on the likelihood that tropical storms and hurricanes will blow into the U.S. with the “same, less or greater force” than last year, according to Dave Johnson, chief executive officer of WagerWeb.

Experts on the site predict that storms hitting landfall in the U.S. will be almost 50 percent greater than previous years.  High winds and torrential rainfall took a heavy toll in 2005 – and odds are they will be just as powerful this year.

Water, Flashlights

“We figured that posting odds would get people out of their chairs into the home stores buying water, lumber and flashlights,” said Johnson.

The site, and others, are using National Weather Service statistics and storm classification categories for 2006 for grading purposes.  At WagerWeb.com, the odds today are asking bettors to predict wind speed and numbers of storms as follows: -110 means $11 bet wins $10.

The figures so far are as follows on WagerWeb.com:

* Total Number of Atlantic Tropical Storms/Hurricanes

Over 21.5          ...-110
Under 21.5        ...-110

* Total Number of Hurricanes (Wind Speed at least 74 mph)

Over 10.5          ...-110
Under 10.5        ...-110

* Will there be a Category 5 Hurricane (155+ mph winds)?

Yes                   ...-110
No                    ...-110

According to the odds given by others in the multibillion-dollar Internet betting industry, it\'s a certainty that Florida will be struck by a big hurricane during the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. The season opened this month.

Six hundred were the most recent odds, i.e., 6 to 1 odds, or $6 paid for every dollar bet.

Last year, spawned a record 28 tropical storms, of which 15 became major hurricanes.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. government\'s weather agency, forecasts up to 16 tropical storms, of which up to 10 will become hurricanes. 

The feds expects four to six of the hurricanes to be Category 3 storms or above, so-called "major" hurricanes. The long-term average is for just under 10 storms per season, of which six become hurricanes.

According to BetCris.com, the greatest likelihood is for three major hurricanes to strike the U.S. The odds on that are at plus 165. By contrast, the odds on just one major hurricane striking the United States are plus 400 -- a considerable long shot.