A Time magazine article has highlighted the passion both men have for gambling – poker for Democratic senator and election favourite Barack Obama, and craps for his Republican rival John McCain.

According to Time, McCain loves to bet high stakes on dice games – a habit he picked up in the US Navy, when he “came of age on shore leave in the casinos of Monte Carlo”. He never bets for financial gain, apparently, but enjoys betting $1,000 a time at the craps table for the thrill of the game and the camaraderie that goes with it.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a cunning poker player – preferring five-card stud to Texas Hold’Em, like many poker connoisseurs. His political career has become characterised by his late-night poker games with fellow senators in the Illinois legislature, where he “cadged cigarettes and drank a beer, kept up with the boys’-night-out banter and roared at the off-color stories.”

It is interesting that a fondness for gambling is common among US presidents, given the puritan attitude of the country to betting in general. Andrew Jackson owned racehorses and fighting cocks – this was back in the early nineteenth century – while Richard “Tricky Dicky” Nixon funded his presidential campaign with poker winnings and Teddy Roosevelt noted that professional gamblers “usually made good soldiers”.

No matter which of Obama and McCain becomes the next president of the United States, their love of gambling will gladden the hearts of many American punters. With gambling illegal everywhere but Nevada and New Jersey – hence the kid-in-a-sweetshop surfeits in Las Vegas and Atlantic City – and sports bettors elsewhere forced to bet with crooks and con-men, having a high-roller in the White House can only be good for US gambling.

Richardson is currently 10/1 at Ladbrokes – and that must be worth three points of anyone’s money.

It’s a mystery to me why people still talk about a ‘dream ticket’ featuring Obama and Hillary Clinton as the VP. It just won’t happen.

For starters, too much water has gone under the bridge in their bitter nomination battle. In my opinion Clinton has talked her way out of the job of Obama’s number two.

And what’s more; would you want to be president of the United States with a vice-president married to someone who used to have your job?

Therefore, despite the odds, I’m passing over Hillary as a potential candidate. And in choosing Bill Richardson as my preferred choice I’m going on three things:

1. his half-Mexican ancestry, which will give the Obama ticket more appeal with Hispanic voters;
2. his experience as Energy Secretary during the Clinton administration: oil – or rather the cost of it – will become a key issue during this election campaign; and
3. his experience in general – as a 60-year old state governor, Richardson adds the necessary grey beard to Obama’s youthful zest.

All that and the man is still 10/1. It wasn’t always that way, of course: Richardson opened up as the favourite to get the nod from the Dems until the subject of a Obama/Clinton campaign gathered serious steam when the two were neck-and-neck in the primaries a few weeks ago.

You can hear more about Bill Richardson’s chances to be the Democrat’s VP from Peter Kellner, the chairman of YouGov, who does the occasional podcast for William Hill’s US Election Betting website.

Selection
• 3 pts Bill Richardson to be Democratic vice-president candidate (10/1, Ladbrokes)

Ladbrokes is currently offering 2/1 on McCain to beat Obama in the November contest – and that looks as likely an outcome as any.

As readers of US Election Betting, the political betting blog I post on, will know, Barack Obama is heavily favoured to become the next president of the USA. And correspondingly he’s as short as 8/13 with a slew of layers including Bet365, better, and Stan James to win the election.

He’d probably be even shorter but for his drawn-out scrap to win the Democratic Party’s nomination, which has seen Hillary Clinton fight him all the way. Meanwhile, John McCain saw off the Republican challengers months ago, hence his being cut from fours to a best-priced 13/8.

It’s almost inevitable now that Obama will be the Democrats’ nominee – Al Gore, the possible compromise candidate, is trading at 54/1 on Betfair, having been as low as 14/1 when the battle was at its closest a month ago – and so anyone who believes McCain will win the US election might as well go for the forecast.

Why McCain? Well, regardless of who wins the Democratic contest, American voters have exclusively chosen old white men to enter the White House – and old habits die hard. And it’s going to be hard for the Democrats to unite behind Obama after the bruising fight they’re still involved in.

Selection

• 4 pts John McCain to beat Barack Obama (US Presidential Election straight forecast – 2/1, Ladbrokes)