For the last three months Plus Minus and Cashman's, a Russian-Irish joint venture, has been setting odds on the candidates at two gambling kiosks in Moscow, allowing Muscovites to wager on who they think will inhabit the U. S. White House for the next four years.
One week before the election, bookmakers placed their money on Bill Clinton, offering 11 rubles for every 10 rubles placed on the Democratic contender. If President George Bush wins, bettors will yield 24 rubles for every 10 rubles placed on the Republican incumbent. and a victory by Ross Perot will pay 50 rubles for every 10 rubles wagered on the independent longshot.
Researchers set the odds daily according to the polls and news reports, says Tatyana Tulikova, the company's administrator.
On Tuesday, only a week before the election, a vendor selling bets in a kiosk at the Oktyabr movie theater on Novy Arbat said that an average of 10 people have been placing bets daily.
Of the day's intake, six people placed a few hundred rubles on Clinton, and four people selected the incumbent, three of them betting $100 each. One took the effort to write in the long-forgotten Democrat Jerry Brown, at 21-1 odds.
When not betting money, Muscovites apparently stick with who they know. A poll of 1, 000 Muscovites published Monday in Izvestia showed that 44 percent favored Bush, 13 percent Clinton, and only 1 percent Perot. Sixty-seven percent of those polled said they believed the election would have an impact on Russia.
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