Holy Crap, You Can Gamble On Who Will Replace Pope Benedict XVI

Thanks to the Internet, you can pretty much do anything these days. You can also gamble on anything, thanks to the huge number of online sportsbooks all over the world just waiting to take your money. As proof of this, one sports book is even allowing you to bet on who the successor to the now-resigned Pope Benedict XVI will be.

Paddypower.com, based in Ireland, is offering a number of bets centered around the search for the next Holy Father, including who the next Pope will indeed be. Their list is exhaustive and includes odds for realistic choices at 5/2, all the way to U2's Bono at 1000/1.

In addition to betting odds on who the next Pope will be, the site is taking wagers on which country the new Pope will be from, his Papal name, and how long the Papal Conclave, the method used to elect a new Pope, will last.

Even as a degenerate gambler, I don't think I would have much fun with betting on who the new Pope will be. In fact, I feel like this could do more harm than good.

Think about it: the group who are electing the new Pope know who they are electing after they've done it. Who's to say that they won't just hold off on announcing it for a few days so that they can place some wagers and make a little money on the side? We could have a gambling scandal at the Vatican. Pete Rose could end up being the next pope. Madness could ensue.

If you love to gamble, this is a great opportunity to do so. But there'd better not be any funny business from the Catholic Church. Remember: God is watching.