Saddam and Aliens: Wanna Bet?

March 7, 2003 -- -- With U.S. troops poised for an attack, President Bush has declared that for Iraq and Saddam Hussein, "The game is over."

Wanna bet?

The gaming continues — online, at least.

Think you know when Saddam will be booted from office?

… You can put your money where your mouth is at Dublin, Ireland-based Tradesports.com.

Convinced Saddam will be dead by June 30? Missing? "Smoking Cubans with buddy boy [Moammar Gadhafi]?"

… You can place your bets at Costa Rica-based BetonSports.com — though some critics question the tastefulness of such bets.

BetonSports.com — which spokesman Eddie King boasts represents "the visionaries of this business" of betting on everything from who will win Survivor to which rock stars will overdose this year — places odds of 3 to 2 Saddam will be dead by June 30, and 2 to 1 he'll be in exile or in U.S. custody.

Bettors also can wager on the timing of a U.S. attack.

Fans of longer odds might want to take the 5 to 1 action on the Gadhafi proposition, or 150 to 1 odds that he'll "travel to Calcutta and take up Mother Teresa's torch," "join the Backstreet Boys and tour with Elton John," or be seized by violent aliens who will claim him as a citizen of their planet.

"We've had a couple of people take the long shots," King said.

Those who scoff at such risky bets should know BetonSports.com is investigating whether a Vanity Fair article reporting that Michael Jackson wears a prosthetic nose is grounds for paying out to people who bet the singer's nose would fall off.

"We stand to pay out probably close to $15,000 on that, if it shows that Michael Jackson's nose really did fall off," King said.

King said this week that BetonSports.com had taken 8,000 to 10,000 bets for about $750,000 on Saddam and war prospects over the approximately three weeks questions have been posted on its site.

Tradesports.com, on the other hand, has taken more than 62,000 "trades" on Saddam's future as president since it began listing the propositions Sept. 24.