Wanna bet Victoria will have a white Christmas?
For the first time, the B.C. Lottery Corporation’s PlayNow.com is offering the opportunity to place a wager on the chances of snow for Christmas in Victoria.
The site has done the same thing for Vancouver before, but this is a first for Victoria.
While it has been a snowy past few days in the capital region, PlayNow.com — the only legal, regulated online gambling website in B.C., with revenue going to government coffers — notes that the current forecast for Christmas is for rain, with temperatures of 6 C and 8 C on Saturday and Sunday.
Environment Canada has pegged the statistical chances of a white Christmas in Victoria at 16 per cent, based on weather patterns from 1997 to 2021.
For meteorologists, an official white Christmas calls for at least two centimetres of snow on the ground on Christmas morning.
BCLC Matt Lee said the odds in Victoria have been set at 2.5, meaning a bet of $10 for a white Christmas will yield a $25 payout if it happens.
The whole idea is to do something light-hearted for the holidays, Lee said. Next week, the lottery corporation will take bets on which hospital will have the first New Year’s baby of 2023.
Vancouver has been given the same odds as Victoria for a white Christmas, making the two cities the co-longshots among locales open for bets, which include Ottawa, Regina and Winnipeg at 1.2 odds, Toronto at 1.4 and Calgary at 1.5.
Punters can also wager on what January day in Vancouver will be the coldest. The coldest January day in 2022 was Jan. 1 at -10 C, while the coldest in 2021 was Jan. 23 at -4 C.
