Do-or-die wager sought

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 10

Do-or-die wager sought

A Las Vegas bookmaker is asking gaming officials for approval to post odds on whether the evangelist, Oral Roberts, will raise the SUS4.S million ($8.32 million) he says is needed to keep him alive. But the head of the State Gaming Control Board said the odds of such a wager being allowed are slim. “I think it’s fair to assume ... that the answer would be no,” said the board chairman, Bart Jacka.

Gene Maday, of Little

Caesar’s bookmakers, posted the bet last Friday, but said no odds would be placed and no money taken unless gaming officials gave their consent

Mr Maday sent a letter to Mr Jacka asking for permission to offer the wager. Mr Jacka said yesterday he had not yet received the letter.

Mr Roberts announced on his national television shows on January 4 and 11 that God had spoken to him and told him to raise SUS4.S million

($8.32 million) for medical and missionary scholarships by March or he would die.

Officials at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma announced that SUSI. 6 million ($2.96 million) had been raised In the first 10 days of the appeal.

The appeal caused a furor among some television stations carrying the broadcasts and school officials stopped announcing the amount that had been raised.