People will bet on anything. There may not be a Church law against it, but it strikes me as sacrilegious.
Conclave Watch: Wanna Bet?
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I have always hated sports betting because there’s literally zero control I have over it on the field/court.
This strikes me as even dumber, because a) no one knows who most of the Cardinals are and b) the proceedings are conducted behind closed doors.
OT, but…Legalized sports betting has already ruined the top tiers of college football and basketball, where the idea of amateur scholar-athletes is basically dead, after already having been on life support for some time. It is a plague that the Church ought to oppose fiercely for the damage it does to souls.
Rant over. 😁
I agree that it’s wrong. It also tells us something about his time that Pope Gregory felt the need to codify it.
You don’t want to know my train of thought here, but if we have a first round to disqualify the lowest-seeded 7 cardinals, we’d be down to 128 candidates, or eight brackets of 16. We put traditional powerhouses like Florence against your Myanmars, always a chance of an upset, but by the time you get down to the final four you’ve likely got the top candidates.
I’m curious to know what the betting odds are and on who they are betting to have the odds stacked in their favour. And more importantly, how they got those odds…
It seems like wasted money if anyone believes any bookmaker anywhere can statically predict who the next Pope will be.
It’s like playing that clown/ball game at a carnival- there is no formula or technique in knowing how to make the balls fall in the column that will get you the highest number to win the biggest teddy bear.
That and they obviously are not Catholic. 😂 Silly.
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We already have a lot more than money riding on this.
Ezabelle – Yup. There’s no advantage in betting unless you have inside information, but if you have inside information you’re excommunicated.
A Cardinal could tell another Cardinal he would vote for a particular Cardinal and yet cast a completely different vote. Even powerbrokers would not be able to work out the odds.
A bookie uses player fitness, team makeup, past wins and losses, home or away game advantages, external player and coaching factors, player focus etc…to work out the odds of that team winning that week.
The bookie has nothing to work from in regards to the conclave. Except speculation and media gossip and heresay. No data. Zip.