ROME (AP) ā Next weekās to to as leader of the worldās 1.4 billion Catholics is a solemn affair steeped in .
But far from the where will cast votes, people are placing bets on who will be chosen as the next pope. From cash bets on websites to online games modeled after and casual wagers among friends and families, the popularity of guessing and gambling on the future of the papacy is increasing worldwide, experts and participants say.
It's even topped the Europa League soccer tournament and Formula One driversā championship, said Sam Eaton, U.K. manager for Oddschecker, a leading online platform analyzing odds across sports, events and other betting markets.
āThereās a huge level of interest globally," he said. āI donāt think weāve had a market like this where weāve had so many countries interested in seeing odds.ā
Around the world, thousands of bets on the next pope
Hundreds of thousands of people from some 140 countries have visited Oddschecker to review each cardinalās chances of becoming the next pope, Eaton said. He noted special eagerness in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States.
In the U.K., about 30,000 pounds (almost $40,000) have been wagered with one leading online betting platform as of this week, Eaton said ā a far cry from 1.2 million pounds on the singing contest Eurovision but still noteworthy as a trend, with the conclave days away.
āBetting on the next pope is definitely a niche market in the grand scheme of things, but it generates global interest,ā said Lee Phelps, a spokesman for William Hill, one of the U.K.ās biggest bookmakers.
āSince April 21, weāve taken thousands of bets, and itās the busiest of all our non-sports betting markets,ā said Phelps, who expects a surge in interest once the conclave begins Wednesday.
Betting on elections, papal conclaves and all manner of global events is almost a tradition of its own in the U.K., but such betting is not legal in the United States. BetMGM, one of the worldās top sports-betting companies, said it would not have any bets up.
But Eaton noted that in the unregulated, illegal space, one of the biggest sites has $10 million wagered so far in pope bets.
Fantasy āteamsā of cardinals
In Italy, betting on the papal election ā and all religious events ā is forbidden.
Some people in Rome are making friendly, informal wagers ā the equivalent of $20 on a favorite cardinal, with the loser pledging to host a dinner or buy a pizza night out.
Others are turning to an online game called Fantapapa, or Fantasy Pope, which mimics popular fantasy football and soccer leagues. More than 60,000 people are playing, each choosing 11 ā as if for a soccer team ā whom they believe have the best shot at becoming the next pope.
They also draft the , or captain. As with online wagers, the No. 1 choice for fantasy players has been Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, closely followed by Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
āItās a really fun game to play with friends and have a laugh,ā Italian student Federico La Rocca, 23, said. āInitially my dad sent it to me ironically, but now that itās going to be the conclave, I decided to have a go and try it.ā
La Rocca said he chose Tagle because āhe looks like a nice guy and fun person.ā
Playersā selections determine the number of points they rake in. But whatās the jackpot?
āEternal glory,ā joked Mauro Vanetti, who created the game when earlier this year.
Vanetti said he and his co-founder are against gambling, but they wanted to create something fun around the event.
āIt seems like in Italy thereās a certain inquisitiveness about the mechanisms of the Catholic hierarchy, but itās a critical curiosity, a sarcastic and playful curiosity, so we were interested in this jesting spirit for such a solemn event,ā Vanetti said. āIn some ways it deflates the sacredness, in a nonaggressive way.ā
Some concerns about betting on a solemn event
Beyond simply picking who the next pope will be, players and gamblers also can guess how many tries it will take the cardinals to choose the leader, which day of the week heāll be elected, what new name he will decide on, or where his priorities will land on the progressive-conservative scale.
While the game and some of the bets have a novel or fun nature, anti-gambling advocates have raised overall concerns about legal gaming and the growing popularity of wagering on all manner of events.
A study published last fall found that 10% of young men in the U.S. show behavior that indicates a , which is a
And for gambling around the papacy in general, some have raised religious concerns. Catholic teaching doesnāt go so far as to call games of chance or wagers sinful, but its Catechism warns that āthe passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement.ā
It says gambling becomes āmorally unacceptableā if it gravely affects a personās livelihood.
___
Hui reported from London. AP writers Giovanna Dell'Orto in Rome and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APās with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Maria Grazia Murru And Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press
