BetBug

Now, I know that most people reading this blog don’t know much about me. I have written other places about gambling, but here it’s a whole new world. It’s Not Seattle.

Anyway, if you did know me you’d realize that I don’t much like writing about other websites. I’m not the kind of shill to write about some website to try to get you to sign up. And I’m not trying to get you to sign up with BetBug.com. It’s P2P gambling. Online.

I can hear you scratching your head. P2P gambling? Huh?

P2P means “peer to peer” and if you already are familiar with that then skip ahead. For the rest of us, that means that files are stored in multiple places and are downloaded from them all at once. KaZaA does this, and BitTorrent invented it. It helps eliminate the load on a server that has a particular video, for instance. It’s the method that most illegal downloading takes place.

But how does this apply to gambling????

I’m glad you asked.

BetBug is one of a couple of P2P gambling sites that appeared late 2004 and are just now getting all the kinks worked out. They don’t take 10% juice on the front end like most sports books, and they don’t take it on the back end of the losers like most real books (ahem). They take a small percentage of the total transaction. Similar to how the house rakes 2% of the pot in a poker round. So what? Well, now the entire spectrum of gambling is open to you.

You wanted to place an over/under bet on the first half of the Women’s NIT champiopnship game? Aw. Good luck finding that action. Unless you’re hooked into P2P. Now you can float your own bet out there. I’m not sure if BetBug allows this but other P2P carriers do – I mention BetBug today because I got an email from them telling me that if I deposit $100 I get a $25 bonus and if I deposit $200 I get a “free Las Vegas Vacation.”

But I’m sure you can see where this is going. Everyone is their own bookie. Before with BitTorrent and other P2P file sharing everyone was their own file server and music distributor. Now you too can be your own private oddsmaker. Tease the Seattle/Minnesota baseball game with an over/under on Shaq’s shooting percentage. Give odds on the Astro’s record for the season. Even bet on who dies first in the next Harry Potter book. ANYTHING IS AVAILABLE TO YOU WITH THIS and has the infinite powers of turning anyone into “out of control gambling guy.”

Good luck – look out.