Vegas Odds On Current Events 2024
Political betting has long attracted casual and non-sports bettors, but with the ascension of Donald Trump in 2016, the endless daily Trump odds took over the entire market and made election betting a permanent fixture. Naturally, right along with them came Vegas current events odds. After all, everything is politics, and current events are more political than otherwise. This made current events betting a natural extension for all the top online sportsbooks.
In general, current events betting can seem like a very broad category, and it mostly is. Unlike political betting which covers comparatively specific events having to do directly with election outcomes or legislative votes, “current events” can cover pretty much anything. Nevertheless, just about everything covered by this category is underpinned by politics, which you can see by glancing over our Vegas current events betting guide.
Is Current Events Betting Legal In The United States?
Yes, it is. However, like political betting odds, you can only legally wager on current events odds at offshore sportsbook sites. There are no federal laws barring this pastime, and the activity similarly has no state laws against individual participation (outside of those for residents of Washington state).
Remember, in the United States, domestic sportsbooks are forbidden to offer odds on politics altogether, and only one state currently offers betting odds of any kind that aren’t specifically on sporting events. That state is New Jersey, which occasionally hosts things like Academy Awards odds.
And while such awards show odds could be considered current events odds in their own way (as most movies, shows, and songs primed to win their various statuettes and shiny baubles feature overtly and almost comically political narratives), true current events betting is limited to the online international gambling space and mobile sportsbooks.
What Kinds Of Current Events Bets Are Available?
There are countless Vegas current events odds in the political realm, each having to do either directly or indirectly with politics. These run the gamut, from the price of milk at Piggly Wiggly to how quickly SpaceX can get rural satellite that doesn’t suck up and running in my area.
Current events odds can include things like indictment betting lines and action on criminal court cases, along with wacky fare like alien abductions, crypto prices for various popular coins, and even TIME’s Person of the Year nonsense (which usually isn’t even an actual person anymore).
Of course, aside from betting on current events themselves, the odds – and the moneylines attributed to them – are a good way to research more direct political props and various elections like Presidential races, governor’s races, and suchlike.
Politics itself is basically pop culture, and the overlap between politics and current events is very nearly one-to-one. As such, even if you don’t bet on current events, you should use them as a point of reference to better inform the Vegas election odds you do decide to throw down on.
Indictment Odds
With the tenure of President Trump, Presidential impeachment odds were the talk of the town. They were up year-round, and The Donald didn’t disappoint, becoming the first US President to be impeached twice (emerging victorious both times).
Indeed, specifically and exclusively because of Trump, impeachment odds promise to be a Vegas political betting mainstay.
Our prediction? Any time the sitting President is from the opposition party to that controlling the US House, he or she will be impeached. From here on out, expect impeachment to be standard operating procedure.
But, of course, it won’t stop there. That’s why indictment odds are also here to stay. Remember, once a politico is no longer in office (or even – as in the case of former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo – sometimes while still in office), an indictment is just as valid (or invalid) an attack.
Inflation Odds
Inflation odds are a relatively new category at the best political betting sites, with MyBookie Sportsbook taking the lead on these fun lines (albeit they’re not so fun for your bottom line).
Because you’ll mainly see such odds during eras of overwhelming Democrat control in the United States, you’ll need to jump on these when you can.
For example, Bidenflation™ is currently running amok, but once the GOP defeats the left in the 2022 Midterm elections and retakes both chambers of Congress (as indicated by the current US House of Representatives odds and US Senate odds), shipping bottlenecks, oil pipeline closures, and logistics delays should be resolved in short order.
Then, it’ll be another 6-10 years before we get big inflation odds again, because that seems to be about how long it takes for the Democrat Party to rebuild after every rebuff.
Criminal/Civil Trial Odds
Odds on various criminal trials du jour used to be more common, but they’re still available for certain types of cases. Typically, to be featured at the best online Vegas election sportsbooks, a criminal trial has to feature a public person as the defendant, and it can’t be something topical based primarily on things like racial animus.
For example, Jeffrey Epstein was fair game until he died in prison, which is why his associate Ghislaine Maxwell has taken his place on the political betting boards.
Meanwhile, high-profile cases of a more politically or socially inflammatory nature are usually not included. That’s why – despite there being plenty to choose from given the media's lust for the stuff – you don't usually see the biggest hot-button court cases or outrages covered by the sportsbooks here.
While these kinds of more "sensitive" cases have an overwhelming political impact regardless of their outcomes, they’re just considered too controversial for most reputable online sportsbooks to touch with Dick Cheney's 28-gauge shotgun.
Alien Abduction Odds
Alien abduction odds have been trending for a long time, and they don’t appear to be going anywhere. We aren’t exactly sure why these have become so popular at all the major election betting sites, but we suspect it has something to do with the current state of things – i.e. the “current events” of here and now – being utterly intolerable for so many people (particularly Republicans).
These kinds of odds basically offer a form of online political betting escapism, and they definitely work as such. Plus, they have incredible political ramifications.
Consider: The lines show what bettors think of different global governments and how they stack up to one another (which you can get a clearer picture of in our international politics betting section), they show what bettors think of the might of humanity’s disparate militaries, and so on.
Such lines also provide insight on why a given celebrity might be an attractive target to aliens, which – more often than not – has some positive correlation to said celebrity’s Presidential election odds.
Miscellaneous Odds
Miscellaneous current event odds usually have at least some political connotations, and those can be either direct or indirect. For example, there are typically several different coronavirus odds to choose from on the betting boards, and while these are straightforward enough, they usually have a trickle-down effect on all things political.
They can alter election dates for which betting lines are produced, they can drive policies that generate their own betting lines, and they can even affect all kinds of other odds on the boards.
Other kinds of miscellaneous Vegas political odds in the current events category include political futures bets on awards like TIME’s Person of the Year, the price of Bitcoin or a given crypto coin in relation to the US dollar (or litigation/pending regulation in the crypto space itself), and even odds on various consumer goods – usually of the politically correct “green variety” – to hit the market before a given date or competitor’s product.
The sky’s the limit on these, and most current events can be tied to politics in one way or another, so it’s always a good idea to pay attention to the whole slate.
