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CAN YOU BET ON THE TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPICS?

I play fantasy sports because they give me something to root for when I watch the games on TV.  As much as you want players on your team to do well, you almost as much hope all the other players don't, and maybe even get injured.  The ESPN baseball competition is free and you win nothing but pride.  But that's enough for me.  Incidentally, my four teams are in 6th, 3rd, 2nd and FIRST, in a league of 8.

When I go to Las Vegas, I only dabble with the machines.  I  remember I was once in Sparks, Nevada, had a nice steak dinner for almost nothing, and on the way out dropped a quarter in one.  For no reason at all, three quarters rolled out.  I couldn't lose.  In a short while I filled one of those LARGE buckets with quarters.  Must have been several hundred dollars.  Clearly it was broken, so I had two choices:  leave immediately with my winnings, or summon an employee to report this malfunction.  I went back to my motel.  Yet, I thought, why not, so I went back.  The machine was gone.  Did I feel bad about cheating the casino?  Nope, I've lost a lot more.  Well, not that much more, for I don't do much betting, and what I do is spend never more than $100 total/trip on sport parlay cards.

I might add I will never lose at gambling in my life for one reason.  I was once in Vegas and bought several football cards.  I flew to Dulles, DC on Friday night.  Saturday was rainy and cold, so I just watched college football in my room TV.  One by one my parlay cards, mostly $2 ones, bombed out.  At the end of the day, one card remained okay.  I had picked 11 out of 11 and had one more pro game on Sunday.  My team prevailed the next day, and I don't remember how much I won, but it was a couple of thousand dollars, because this was a $5 card.  

Those kind of wins happen to me all the time.  I remember being in Harrah's Reno, and again after a great steak meal, dropped a silver dollar into a huge Elvis machine.  He scared me by dancing and singing, for I won a hundred dollars.  Another, I joined some friends at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, California, put $2 down on a horse  at 28:1 because I liked his name, and he came in first.   That was my only bet on horse racing in my life.  Then this year I won several sport pools at 15 Craigside, including the college championship and Super Bowl games.

So what are my gambling plans for Tokyo Summer Olympics?  I have none.  My patriotism is sufficient to maintain interest.  But you can.  SportsHandle has a comprehensive assessment worthy of your view.  First, it says sports betting is now legal in certain areas of the U.S.  But later I'll tell you which can and cannot.  Because of the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, these will be the first Olympics in which Americans can legally bet on events.  To begin, how many gold medals will the USA win:

Country medal totals

Surprising that Japan is expected to place third.  But, after all, these games are occurring in their country.  During the past six summer Olympics, China was the only country to beat the USA, when hosting in 2008.  The odds of Japan getting more gold medals than the U.S. are -1000, or (go to the right column  under BETTING ODDS CALCULATOR to do this) 5%.  The USA has a 91% chance of getting the most gold medals.

Where is Russia?  Banned for doping.  However, 335 of their athletes will  be allowed to compete for a neutral flag and anthem.  Other useful bits of info:

  • The USA has 621 athletes, minus no doubt a couple who will test positive for COVID-19.  
    • 193 of them were in previous Games, 54 gold medalists.  The top nine leading medalists are female.
    • There are six sets of siblings.
    • Equestrian Phillip Dutton returns for his eighth.  He is also the oldest at 58.  
    • Swimmer Katie Grimes is 15. as the youngest.
    • There are more than 11,000 world athletes, plus another 4500 for the special olympics, which follow.
  • No spectators.  Tokyo is showing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.  However, this is tricky, but there are 10,000 or  so special quota individuals allowed to be there for special events.  This list includes Jill Biden and Emmanuel Macron.
  • USA uniforms by Ralph Lauren, featuring RL Cooling technology, which is battery powered, for it will be hot.  This period is no time to be here because of the temperature and humidity.  Kim Kardashian designed the undergarments and loungewear.
  • NBC and its network will show everything you wish, and more.
  • The Opening Ceremony will be 7AM EDT, or 8PM in Tokyo, on Friday, July 23.  The theme is United by Emotion.  Entrance by Japanese katakana, not alphabetically.  Who will light the Olympic torch?  I'll tell you later.
  • However, some sports like soccer, softball and baseball need more than 16 days to finish.  So they will begin playing on Wednesday, July 21.
  • Closing Ceremonies on Sunday, August 8.

So back to gambling, GamblingSites recommends:

They further say:  The best and most reputable sports betting sites available today have worked hard to garner those reputations over the years. We don’t just say they’re the best. There are several reasons these sites should be at the top of your list as the top destinations at which to wager on the Olympics.  Sites will literally give you free money or free bets as a way of letting you sample their offerings without having to risk your own hard-earned cash. If you like what you see, then you may ultimately decide to sign up and become a regular customer. Every smart bettor takes advantage of these bonus and promotional offers, and the best sites in the industry are happy to offer them on a regular basis.

So when you see this, what do you do?

draftkings sportsbook promo

According to this site, you need to be careful.  There are a lot of states where DraftKings is NOT legal, like Hawaii (and all the black ones):


Read that article, but, in short, don't.  What you can do is convince your state to join the coming trend.  Hawaii and Utah happen to be especially hostile to any kind of gambling.  This is why so many from Hawaii fly to Vegas.

Okay, say you are legal, what do you do:
  • You can use your credit/debit card, but also e-wallets (like PayPal) and crytocurrency.  This might be your chance to carefully get into Bitcoins.
  • Use your computer or mobile device.
  • Type of bets:
    • Moneyline bet:  While the USA has already lost to Australia in a recent exhibition game, chances are that when they meet in Tokyo, you will see something like 
      • U.S. (-250) and Austrialia (+550)
      • What this means is that with a negative number, your betting $250 on the U.S. to win will get you $100, or a payout of $350, if the U.S. beats Australia.  If went positive, the $100 on Australia wins $550, or a payout of $650.
    • Point spread, where you might see:
      • United States -10.5 (110) and Australia +10.5 (110).
      • If you were to wager on Team USA, America would need to win by a minimum of 11 points for you to win that bet.  Likewise if you bet on Australia, it would need to lose by 10 points or less.  You would bet $110 to win $100, or a payout of $210. 
      • In other words, the house keeps $10 no matter who wins, an average of $5 per $100 bet.  They attempt to get back 5% on these bets, something called vigorish.
    • Over/Under:  say you want to bet on your country, like say the USA, to win more than the predicted 43 gold medals...or fewer than 44 gold medals:
      • The current bet is Over 43.5 (-115) or Under (43.5 (-105).
      • If American athletes combine to win at least 44 gold medals, the over bet will return back $215 for your $115 bet.  If they fail to attain 44 gold medals, you get back a total of $205 for your $105 bet.
    • Futures:  let's look at basketball--
  • United States (-1000)
  • Spain (+800)
  • Australia (+900)
  • Argentina (+1000)
  • Czech Republic (+1200)
  • Slovenia (+1200)
  • Japan (+1300)
  • Iran (+1800)
  • France (+2000)
    • If you bet on the USA to win the gold, you need to invest $100 to win $10.
    • If you bet on France, your $100 would win $2000, or a payout of $2100.
    • The first U.S. game is against France.  But these odds are for the gold medal, not playing against each other.
    • Again, that -1000 for the USA means they have a 95% chance of getting that gold medal.
    • The +2000 for France means they have a 5% chance of getting that gold medal.
  • But things go wrong, so:  Top sites in the industry are all well-staffed with customer service reps that can be accessed via phone, email, or live online chat session 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These teams are ready and willing to help you should you have any questions, concerns, complaints, or issues when wagering on the Olympics online.
Wow, Hurricane Felicia is now a Category 4 at 130 MPH.  A little closer than 2000 miles from the Big Island, with a possibility of reaching Category 5 today.  All predictions show her weakening into a tropical storm by mid-week when she crosses into the Central Pacific, just over 1.000 miles southeast of Hilo.  While models show Felicia moving past Hawaii far to the south, one model indicates a track right over Maui.

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