Intrade

[steepo17]

There is a website called Intrade (Intrade.com) which allows users to actually put money (bet) on the outcome of nearly any event (political or otherwise). The events are displayed the same as you would find the latest trade data for stocks, bonds, etc. The bid/ask are basically quantified as percentages. A typical Event might be "Republicans will take over as House Majority based on results from 2010 elections." As far as politics is concerned, I know statisticians have looked at this and if there are enough people that actually bet on a single event (enough critical mass to draw some valid statistical conclusions), the predictions made on this board can be pretty accurate. It's found that people tend to predict more accurately when they have money at stake.....go figure. It's pretty interesting, you should check it out.

 

[steepo17]

....Oh, and if betting the ranch on Joe Schmoe winning a congressional seat doesn't break you, you can always check out Forex (Forex.com), in which you can directly trade currency online (please don't do this). The site has good info though.

 

[LEaSH]

The ultimate video game.