No longer a betting man

At the GOP presidential debate in Iowa last week, Mitt Romney made headlines when he challenged Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet. Perry had accused Romney of deleting a line in his book ?No Apology? between hardback and softcover editions that he claimed showed that Romney wanted to expand Massachusetts? health care plan to the nation. Romney denied the accusation and bet $10,000 that Perry could not prove the charge. Perry did not accept the bet.

The incident has generated a lot of discussion over whether Romney was serious when he challenged Perry to the bet. Even if he was serious and Perry accepted it, the bet could not stand since betting is illegal in Iowa except at Bingo games and racetracks. In fact, betting over $5,000 is a Class C felony.

As I was reading through betting laws earlier today I remembered that I was once a betting man myself, although my bets never got into the thousands of dollars. Actually, my bets never rose above $1. In elementary school, my friends and I watched a lot of professional wrestling. We knew the wrestlers well enough that we thought we could predict who was going to win the match, so we bet each other nominal sums of money, usually 10 cents, on the outcome. My favorite wrestler was Diamond Dallas Page, whose moves we got to act out when the teacher wasn?t looking. By the way, kids, you should not wrestle in school unless you are in P.E. class.

I found it hard to bet against the wrestler I wanted to win, even if I thought he would lose, which in turn caused me to lose most bets. My friends were able to afford a lot of candy because of me.

We did not usually bet on sports, but the biggest bet I remember making was with my friend Alex on the outcome of the 2000 American League Division Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Seattle Mariners. I was not a White Sox fan but I had seen them play and was pretty certain they would beat the Mariners with ease. I put 75 cents on the ?South Siders.? Not only did the White Sox lose the series, they did not win a single contest as they were swept in three games. After that I lost faith in my ability to predict the future and swore off betting, much to the chagrin of my friends.