Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 850, Betting on Sports.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 850.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
If you want to get a complete transcript of everything we say, in case there's something you didn't quite understand, go to our website and become an ESL Podcast Learning Guide member.
This episode is a dialogue between Peter and Angela about betting trying to win money by betting on sports.
Let's get started.
Look at this.
I just won 2,000 smackaroos.
Where did you get all that money?
I won it betting on the game last night.
I placed a small wager with high odds and won big.
Wow, I always put money in the pools at work, but I've never won anything like $2,000.
I'll introduce you to my bookie if you want to do some serious betting.
But I warn you, he only deals in high-stakes wagers, not penny-ante bets.
You bet through a bookie?
You must do some serious gambling.
I don't think that's for me.
You can't win big if you don't play big.
I've just placed a bet on this weekend's game.
But the Minnesota McCues are the favorites by a wide margin.
There's a ten-point point spread.
Come on, what do you say?
Are you in or out?
That's too rich for my blood.
I think I'll stick to the minor leagues.
Our dialogue begins with Peter saying to Angela, Look at this.
I just won 2,000 smackaroos.
Smackaroos, S-M-A-C-K-A-R-O-O-S, is an informal... term meaning dollars.
It's a little old.
You don't hear it that much anymore.
It was much more popular in the 20th, mid-20th century, let's say.
But you'll still hear someone say, that costs 400 smackaroos, 400 bucks, 400 dollars.
Peter says he just won 2,000 smackaroos.
Angela says, where did you get all that money?
Peter says, I won it betting on the game last night.
To bet, B-E-T, is to try to win money by guessing how something is going to turn out in the future.
Who's going to win the game?
Who's going to win the election?
Which horse is going to race the fastest?
Betting is guessing with your money and if you're right, of course, you get money back.
If you're wrong, you lose your money.
That's the whole idea.
We have betting legally in the state of Nevada, which is next to California.
We have betting in other cities and other places.
Most states actually probably have some form of betting.
It may be the government sponsoring the betting.
It may be Native American or American Indian tribes sponsoring, But betting is fairly common now, in the US at least, more common than it was 40 years ago.
Peter says that he won the money betting on a game last night.
I placed a small wager with high odds and one big.
A wager, W-A-G-E-R, is the amount of money that you bet.
Don't confuse this with the word wage, W-A-G-E, which is the money you get for working.
Many people get a wage and then they take their wages and they make wagers.
Well, Peter made or placed a wager, either verb is correct, with high odds.
High odds means that the probability or likelihood of something happening was very small.
It's a little confusing.
If you say this has high odds, we mean that If you win you'll win a lot of money back, but it's not very likely that you will win.
This is often expressed by using expressions like 10 to 1 or 5 to 1.
You bet a dollar, and if you win, you get $5 back.
If it's 10 to 1 and you bet $1, you get $10 back.
But 10 to 1 might be considered high odds, meaning not very likely to happen.
Well, Peter won by placing a small wager on something with high odds, and he won big.
He won a lot of money.
Angela says, wow, I always put money in the pools at work. but I've never won anything like $2,000.
The pools, P-O-O-L-S, refers to betting pools.
A betting pool is when everybody puts in a small amount of money and you, for example, are trying to guess who's going to win a tournament where you have, let's say, eight teams, eight baseball teams or, more likely, eight football teams playing in this tournament and eventually there'll be only one winner.
You might have a pool where you bet on a certain team and then, When that team wins, everyone who bet on that team, who said that team was going to win, gets part of the money.
There aren't any odds in betting pools.
It's not like 10 to 1 or 5 to 1.
It just depends on how many people bet.
The more people who bet and the fewer people who bet on the winner, the more money those people will get.
Pools sometimes are arranged so that there's only one possibility.
For some reason, in some offices in the US it's popular to have a pool for the time that a baby will be born to someone who works in the office, and the person who's closest to the day and time wins the pool.
There, there would probably only be one winner.
But betting pools can have more than one winner.
Angela says she's never won anything like 2000, meaning anything that she has won has been much less.
Peter says, I'll introduce you to my bookie if you want to do some serious betting.
I'll introduce you.
I will take you to this person.
In this case, the bookie.
A bookie, B-O-O-K-I-E, is someone whose job it is to take money for people's bets.
Bookies usually are working illegally, at least that's the general use of the term.
If somebody says they have a bookie, usually it's someone who is running these pools or taking bets on games that are not legally sanctioned, that are not allowed by the government.
But because it's so common, it's very difficult for the government to try to stop this sort of thing.
Peter has a bookie, which usually means the person is a rather serious gambler.
He says, Serious here would mean significant a lot.
But I warn you, he only deals in high-stakes wagers, not penny-ante bets.
High stakes means a lot of money, with usually a lot of risk involved.
Penny ante would be a very small amount of money.
It's a type of gambling where people wouldn't bet more than a dollar or two dollars, maybe five dollars.
High stakes gambling would be hundreds of dollars, or perhaps even thousands of dollars that you're betting.
Angela says you bet through a bookie.
She's a little surprised because, as I mentioned, if you work with a bookie, if you have a bookie for your bets, you're probably a pretty serious better.
You must do some serious gambling.
Notice the use of the word serious again.
It means a lot or a lot of money involved.
Gambling is when you place bets on some future event.
Gambling and betting are basically the same thing.
Betting and gambling usually deal with money, but you could bet or gamble on things that did not involve money directly.
Angela says, I don't think that's for me.
Peter says, you can't win big if you don't play big.
What he means here is you can't win a lot of money unless you bet a lot of money.
I've just placed a bet on this weekend's game.
In many American offices, certainly in the offices that I've worked in, it's not unusual, especially during American football season, for there to be people betting on the football games of that weekend.
Often you go through and you pick the winners of all of the games, however many.
There are a dozen, two dozen, I don't know.
I don't watch American football.
But You bet on the winner, and the person who gets the most winners wins the money.
That's a pretty common practice in a lot of businesses and a lot of offices.
Peter says he's just placed a bet on this weekend's game.
We don't know if it's a basketball game or a football game or what it is.
Angela says, but the Minnesota McHugh's are the favorite by a wide margin.
The Minnesota McCues is one of the best, of course, sports teams in whatever sport they play.
Angela says the Minnesota McCues are the favorites by a wide margin.
To be the favorites means to be the person or the team that is expected to win this game.
Wide margin means by a very large amount or significant amount.
In other words, the Minnesota McCues are expected to win.
Peter says there's a 10-point point spread.
We might more commonly just say a 10-point spread.
A
Point spread is a prediction about the differences in the final scores of the games.
So for a specific game, let's say you have one very good team playing one not very good team in basketball.
There might be a 20-point spread, meaning the team that's good has to win by 20 points.
If they don't, even though they win the game, if they win it by less than 20 points, you don't win the bet.
Peter says, come on, what do you say?
What do you say is an informal phrase used to ask someone's opinion or to ask for their decision when you're trying to persuade them to do something.
He says, are you in or out?
Meaning, are you going to bet or not?
I've just put $500 on it.
Angela says, that's too rich for my blood.
The expression to be too rich for your blood means it's too expensive for you.
It's too much money.
She says, I think I'll stick to the minor leagues.
I think I'll stick to means.
I think I will continue, in this case, betting on things that are less expensive or less important.
In American baseball, we have the minor leagues and the major leagues.
The minor leagues are the teams where the players aren't as good and don't get paid as much.
The major leagues are the large teams teams where the players get millions of dollars.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, for example, is a major league baseball team.
But the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes is a minor league team that no one has ever heard of.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look at this.
I just won 2,000 smackaroos.
Where did you get all that money?
I won it betting on the game last night.
I placed a small wager with high odds and won big.
Wow.
I always put money in the pools at work, but I've never won anything like $2,000.
I'll introduce you to my bookie if you want to do some serious betting.
But I warn you, he only deals in high-stakes wagers, not penny-ante bets.
You bet through a bookie?
You must do some serious gambling.
I don't think that's for me.
You can't win big if you don't play big.
I've just placed a bet on this weekend's game.
But the Minnesota McCues are the favorites by a wide margin.
There's a ten-point point spread.
Come on, what do you say?
Are you in or out?
I've just put $500 on it.
That's too rich for my blood.
I think I'll stick to the minor leagues.
She does some serious script writing.
Our very own Dr. Lucy Say does.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
