As long as there are things with unknown outcomes, people will gamble on them. Casino games like blackjack, poker and roulette have been gambled on for ages, as have sports. Most offices in America right now are participating in a pool based on the NCAA Tournament. If you’ve ever been to a golf course, you’ve probably seen people wager on whether or not they can make a certain put. People just like to put their money where their mouth is and hopefully make money in the process.
I don’t know how long people have been gambling on box office results, but it makes sense. There are certainly as many movie fans out there as sports fans. Why not gamble on whether the next Jason Statham action movie will break the $100 million mark? Think the new Coen brothers movie will be a sleeper despite a small budget, including in marketing? Why not bet on it?
Two online websites that I know of have decided to organize this type of proposition bet. Trade Exchange and Cantor Exchange plan to let people gamble on the box office returns of upcoming movies. The gambling on the movies will be treated more like futures trading on the stock market than a prop bet. People will invest money on a certain movie, hoping that it reaches a certain financial goal. The Motion Picture Association of America (you know, that group that warns you before every movie starts) isn’t pleased.
The MPAA released a letter that says “the reputation and integrity of our industry could be tarnished by allowing trading in movie futures contracts in a manner which allows them to be viewed as the economic equivalent of legalized gambling on movie receipts. We can see no public purpose in allowing these contracts to be the subject of interstate commerce.”
Ouch. So suddenly the MPAA says that their industry has integrity? Have they been paying attention to Hollywood? Without the MPAA on board, though, it may be impossible to hold legal, organized gambling on box office results of Hollywood movies. That, of course, won’t stop office pools and other unorganized attempts.
Tags: Cantor Exchange, movie gambling, movie predictions, MPAA, online betting, online gambling, prop bet, Trade Exchange
