Word: wager
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...they could probably get much steeper prices from more ambitious troublemakers abroad, especially those looking for really hard-to-find goods. "In this country at this time," says a Soviet historian, "anything can happen. If you can come up with a guarantee of $2 million, hard currency, I wager that I can put you in touch with somebody who would sell you a nuclear missile." But how would the buyer get it out of the country? "Easy," he says. "Launch...
...many states willing to wager on something as chancy as novelty gambling? In a word: desperation. Towns on the northern reaches of the Mississippi were battered hard in the Rust Belt shake-out of the early '80s, and the oil bust has left Louisiana's coffers depleted. Hit again by the current recession, local governments are eager for any kind of development that will attract tourists and restore sagging tax rolls. Legislators are keenly aware that gambling is among the country's fastest-growing industries -- expected to be worth $278 billion this year alone -- and they want a piece...
Experts agree that casual gambling, in which participants wager small sums, is not necessarily bad. Compulsive betting, however, almost always involves destructive behavior. Last fall police in Pennsauken, N.J., arrested a teenage boy on suspicion of burglary. The youth said he stole items worth $10,000 to support his gambling habit. Bryan, a 17-year-old from Cumberland, N.J., recently sought help after he was unable to pay back the $4,000 he owed a sports bookmaker. Greg from Philadelphia says he began placing weekly $200 bets with bookies during his sophomore year in college. "Pretty soon...
...democracy leaders had been formally charged, or whether they might be brought to trial at a later date. It is possible that Beijing is still betting on what dissident Fang Lizhi has called the "Chinese amnesia," the tendency of the country's people to forget past repression. That wager has paid off before. China's leaders seem to be hoping that the rest of the world will be equally forgetful...
...open backstage area of New York's Jones Beach Theater, and Wynton Marsalis is pumping balls into the net from every angle. Suddenly, he dribbles out 30 ft. from the goal and announces, "I bet $100 I can sink one from here." A stagehand snaps up the wager. Marsalis flexes his knees, rises up on his toes and sends the ball arcing through the misty night sky. Swish! Amid scattered applause and shouts of "Aw right!" from fellow musicians, a voice calls out, "Wynton, you are one competitive dude!" The young man grins. "No, I'm not competitive," he says...