People have an insatiable appetite for gambling it seems. USA Today has just published the gambling odds for which of the 133 cardinals will be selected as the replacement for Pope Francis.
In the lead is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a 70-year-old Vatican diplomat and the Pope's secretary of state. In a close second is 67-year-old Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who has been called the "Asian Francis" because of his commitment to social justice.
There are at least 5 different gambling platforms taking bets on this and all 5 have those 2 as their top cardinals. But if we look at BET US specifically They have Pietro at 41%, Louis at 39%, Peter Turkson (who would be the first African Pope), Matteo Zuppi, and Pierbattista Pizzaballa round out the top 5,. Sportsbook Review has U.S. Cardinal Dolan ranked as the 13th most likely.
Harry Crane a Rutgers professor who studies gambling trends says "It's not a trivially small market, but it's quite small by comparison to the U.S. presidential election drew billions of dollars in bets just a few million are at stake on bets about a new pope".