Internet gambling sites are taking bets on how long Saddam Hussein will hold onto the presidency of Iraq.
About $1.25 million in wagers have been placed on one site.
Tradesports.com doesn't set any odds. Its bets are set up as futures contracts that people buy and sell to one another. The most active "Saddam security" pays $100 if Iraq's leader is ousted by March 30th.
It has put Saddam's chances of lasting in office until Monday at about 90 per cent. But he has been given only a one in three chance of being in power at the end of April.
Others put Saddam's chances of remaining in Baghdad until June 30th at five-to-one.
Professor Eric Zitzewitz of Stanford University is using one site as a research tool.
He said: "What's great about a financial market is you've got to put your money where your mouth is. It's a reasonably good proxy for what the average person thinks based on publicly available information".
The oil and stock markets generally move in concert with Saddam securities, according to a paper written by Prof Zitzewitz and a Stanford colleague, Mr Justin Wolfer, and Mr Andrew Leigh, a student at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
AP