Would you bet money on someone's pregnancy?

Have you ever placed a bet? Like, really bet—with slips and money—taking odds and quotations into account, hoping to treat yourself to a nice dinner, a designer bag, or a luxury perfume. I haven't. I always thought it was a purely sports-related thing, from football to table tennis, including horse racing, motorbikes, cars, darts (seriously?), and anything else you could think of. But I recently discovered that's not the case, and the implications are numerous.

Online bets on Italian and international gossip

Betting on news and current events, including gossip as a subset of these categories, is on the rise. For example, on the Eurobet website, under the gossip section, you'll find long lists of women (mostly) and men (fewer, but still present) where bets are placed on one thing only: their first pregnancy or first child. The top two categories in this endless list of names are "birth by" and "baby's gender." When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were expecting, for instance, people in the UK were betting on the baby's name. Meanwhile, GoldBet sticks to television shows, opening bets on the winner of X Factor and Dancing with the Stars.

Why this focus on pregnancies?

In the world of entertainment, it seems like, with few exceptions, all the attention is on celebrity pregnancies, which grab headlines and attention, both from the specialized press and the public, who seem to be waiting for just that. There are endless speculations about baby bumps, the gender, and the name, as well as about paternity. Once the baby is born, people obsessively search for photos of the newborn, stroller paparazzi shots, and social media updates, waiting for any new tidbit. Betting, therefore, fits perfectly into this general obsession with women's bodies, the heteronormative family, and motherhood. Between one bet and the next, we might take a moment to reflect on this.

(*) You can only play if you are of legal age. Gambling can cause pathological addiction.