There are countless conspiracy theories that do the rounds, from the faking of the moon landings to 9/11 being an ‘inside job’.
The notion that the earth is flat has been touted for a number of years too, and one Irishman is so adamant of the fact that he has tried to place a £100 wager with a number of bookmakers that our planet is indeed curve-less.
But the sportsbooks have refused his bet, stating that the wager is ‘invalid’.
Grimsby’s Gerard Gallacher, who also maintains that manned rockets have never been sent into space, is furious that he can’t get a bet on as the bookies ‘know I am right’.
“I think the reason that they won’t accept my bet is because they know that I am right in saying that the Earth is flat, and if other people joined me in placing the bet they could lose millions,” he told the Grimsby Telegraph.
“But then even if I am proven wrong and the world is round, then why would they not take my bet? It is just easy money for them.
“William Hill are known for taking on crazy bets, I could go in now and bet my son will play for Celtic and score a hat-trick in 20 years, so why not that the Earth is flat?”
Gallacher’s belief that the earth is flat stems from a lack of photographic evidence from space, and that Nasa had produced their own images using computers. “I am sure that I am right, but willing to be proven wrong, a bookmaker just needs to step up to the plate and take my bet, I would have thought they would like the easy money.”
Ashley Risks It All While Brian Makes a Boob
There will be plenty of cynics who would suggest the young man with his flat earth philosophy has lost the plot somewhere along the line, but credit to Gerard Gallagher for having a belief and putting his money where his mouth is.
And besides, believe it or not his attempted bet, as we must call it, is far from being the craziest ever placed.
Of course, the bookmakers will only take certain bets, and laying a market for Elvis Presley not actually being dead is about as zany as it gets professionally.
But when people have a wager with their mates….well, that’s when things can get rather interesting.
Take Brian Zembic. He is a professional punter who has enjoyed plenty of successes at the racetrack and casinos across the globe, but one bet he took in 1996 was rather different in nature.
A ‘friend’ (use that term loosely) bet Brian $100,000 that he wouldn’t get breast implants and keep them for a whole year. Well, punters very rarely turn down a wager when the odds are in their favour, and so Zembic went out, got the implants and remarkably still has them to this day! Easy money or a complete boob, you decide.
That’s a little bit of fun that earned Brian a bit of ridicule for a nice stash of cash, but how about when the stakes are rather higher?
Who knows what happened to Ashley Revell on the day in question, but the 32-year-old went totally ‘all in’ back in 2004.
He sold everything he owned, even the clothes of his back, brought an airline ticket to Las Vegas and stuck his complete net worth – $136,000 – on red at the roulette table of the Plaza Hotel & Casino.
Imagine the trouser-shredding tensions as the wheel slowed to its conclusion….the good news for Ashley is that the ball landed in red seven, and he walked away with more than $250,000 as well as a TV documentary series following his escapade.