There Will Be Bets: Gambling on Oscar

Feb. 3, 2008 — -- "I didn't put nothing up," the nervous gas station proprietor mumbles as he slowly realizes the stranger standing in front of him expects him to bet his life on the toss of a coin.

"You stand to win everything," intones hit man Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, in what has already become the iconic scene from Joel and Ethan Coen's film "No Country for Old Men."

The stakes at this year's Oscars aren't quite so high. No one is betting his life against a psychotic murderer, but there is money to be won gambling on the Academy Awards and "No Country" is the odds-on favorite.

Though gambling on the Oscars is illegal in Las Vegas or anywhere else in the United States, for that matter, offshore bookmakers who run Internet sites are taking bets on the awards.

"Across the top six Oscar categories Bodog expects to receive thousands of wagers," said bookmaker Richard Gardner, of the gambling Web site BodogLife.com, based in Quebec. "The Oscars have always been Bodog's most popular entertainment odds. Not even an entire season of 'American Idol' odds can hold a candle to the popularity of the Oscars."

"No Country for Old Men" is the favorite to win the best picture category among the bookmakers interviewed by ABCNEWS.com. BodogLife.com put one-fourth odds on the film to win, meaning you would have to bet $400 to win just $100.

BetCris.com, a gambling site based in Costa Rica, picked "No Country" to win, 4-6, and America's Line, a Las Vegas-based syndicated betting column (not a gambling site), also picked the Coen brothers' film to win, 1/1.

The Coens are favorites to win in the best director category, as is Bardem for best supporting actor.

The 80th annual Academy Awards will be held Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

"All of the bookmakers have a sense of what the other big shops are doing," said Harold Klein, bookmaker for BetCris.com. "It wouldn't be beneficial to take a totally different line from the competition, but we try to get action on all the sides."