Barstool Sports

Mirror - Families of terminally ill patients are making bets to predict the date their relatives will die.  The punters are wagering on a macabre game which has sprung up in Taiwan.  According to China Press, senior citizens’ clubs have set up more than 10 gaming houses in Taizhong City as the bizarre trend has taken off.  Gamblers – including cancer patients’ family members and even the doctors – have lodged NT$100m (£2.1m) with bookies.  It is reported that those who want to take part in the game have to pay a membership fee of NT$2,000 (£43) to the bookies.  The bookies then visit hospitals to seek permission from the patients’ family.  Then they take the punters to the hospital on their next visit to observe the patients.  According to the rules, the bookies win if the cancer patients die within a month.

People whining about this story are such losers.  Obviously never felt the rush of having a grand on something that’s completely out of their hands.   Really nothing to make you feel alive like putting half your paycheck on college kids playing football or grown men shooting basketballs or family members agonizingly dying from a terrible disease.  Hey it is what it is. Not like gambling is going to make them die faster or something.  Well unless the doctor treating you is involved in the betting ring of course.  Seriously how does that work?      Kind of unfair right?  I mean isn’t that like letting the refs bet on the game?   And how much would it suck to find out your head doctor has 2 dimes on you dying by the end of the week?  Absolute last thing in the world you want to see lying in that hospital bed is the Tim Donaghy of Oncology making his way to your IV.  Odds for survival not looking good at that point.

Bottom line is there are two types of people in the world, gamblers and non gamblers.  Non gamblers bitch and moan about good taste and morality and basic humanity.  Gamblers scour Covers for angles on when the cancer stricken patient in 304 is going to kick the bucket and maybe parlay it with grandma’s lymphoma.

PS-  In all seriousness I know there are a lot of warning signs and different things for different people but I think you can be pretty positive you have a gambling problem if you’re putting money on people dying and rooting for it to happen.